Chapter Summaries

Hong Yin explained how Qing Yun’s hidden safeguards could destroy the secret chamber and its intruders if they took her storage treasure, and Li Yan realized they had narrowly avoided the trap. Hong Yin then revealed that Red Buddha Temple’s true inheritance was hidden elsewhere, and that its location might explain why the temple refused to leave and why her disciple went to the Desolate Moon Continent.

• Hong Yin recounted how Qing Yun’s injuries and fading origin led her to prepare a concealed array that would destroy the chamber, the great hall, and anyone who took her storage treasure.
• Li Yan understood that the jade slip was designed to guide outsiders toward triggering Qing Yun’s trap, while Red Buddha Temple disciples could recognize the warning and avoid it.
• Li Yan questioned why Red Buddha Temple had chosen to fight to the death instead of migrating, and Hong Yin took the red jade slip while asking whether he suspected Qing Yun’s character.
• Hong Yin revealed that the storage treasures held only part of Red Buddha Temple’s inheritance; its core treasures, including the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture, were hidden elsewhere.
• Hong Yin said the hidden location might explain both Red Buddha Temple’s decision to stay and why her disciple left the Wind God Continent for the Desolate Moon Continent.

Hong Yin explained that Red Buddha Temple had secretly occupied the region because its strange wind and flame might be connected to the Wind God Continent’s deadly winds. She revealed that Jingting had left the lower realm to seek a way to end the wind-beast calamity, and Li Yan was left admiring her resolve.

• Hong Yin told Li Yan that a Red Buddha Temple Great Elder had discovered a mysterious flame surrounded by wind resembling the wind of the Wind God Continent.
• Li Yan realized the wind might share a source with the Wind God Continent’s deadly storms and considered whether studying it could stop the calamity.
• Hong Yin explained that Red Buddha Temple had made the region its secret core area, concealed it by moving spirit veins, and researched the wind and flame for generations.
• Hong Yin recounted that Jingting had left the lower realm to investigate possible wind beasts on the Desolate Moon Continent and followed a clue to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin concluded that Jingting had sought to end the wind-beast scourge at its root, and Li Yan admired her willingness to sacrifice Red Buddha Temple’s survival for that goal.

Hong Yin safely dissolved Qing Yun’s body and revealed that Red Buddha Temple’s true treasures were hidden in a mechanism within the stairs. She carefully prepared to open it, then launched attacks at eighty-one points as Li Yan watched.

• Hong Yin used a golden scripture and an invisible thread of will to dissolve Qing Yun’s body without triggering the underground array, then respectfully bid farewell to her.
• Hong Yin gathered the storage treasures and told Li Yan that the true valuables were hidden elsewhere; Li Yan agreed to follow her.
• Hong Yin led Li Yan to the stairs and identified the seventh step from the bottom as the hidden treasure’s location.
• Hong Yin explained that opening the mechanism required striking eighty-one positions in precise coordination, with nine opened slightly later and in sequence.
• After studying the steps for more than fifty breaths, Hong Yin sent eighty-one specks of starlight toward the mechanism’s scattered opening points.

Hong Yin and Li Yan passed through the Great Wheel Wisdom King Array and reached the Red Buddha Temple’s hidden repository, where a fierce wind tunnel and a small, dangerous flame blocked their way. Hong Yin began searching the temple’s spatial treasures for inherited scriptures and records about the tunnel while Li Yan kept his promise not to claim the treasures and remained focused on investigating the wind.

• Hong Yin dismantled another Great Wheel Wisdom King Array with the Burning Fire Red Lotus Sutra, revealing a passage between the steps.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan entered a chamber shaped like the upper half of a gourd, where spatial bracelets floated near a powerful wind tunnel.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan probed toward the tunnel but withdrew when the flame at its entrance burned their divine senses.
• Hong Yin explained that the tunnel was suspected to be the source of the wind on the Wind God Continent and proposed examining the spatial treasures before investigating it.
• Li Yan asked Hong Yin to search the treasures for records about the wind tunnel and declined to take any of the Red Buddha Temple’s legacy for himself.
• Hong Yin broke the simple seals on the spatial treasures and began searching their contents for scriptures, cultivation methods, and useful records.

Li Yan and Hong Yin examined records about the wind cave and found that previous investigators had been unable to explore far inside. They tested the strange flame at its entrance, then prepared to investigate the cave themselves.

• Hong Yin finished searching Red Buddha Temple's spatial bracelets and offered Li Yan a copy of the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture and a choice of treasures.
• Li Yan asked Hong Yin for jade slips about the wind cave, and she gave him six records of earlier investigations.
• Li Yan learned that Great Elder Qing Yun had reached only eighteen or nineteen zhang into the cave and that the flame might be a seal suppressing its winds.
• Li Yan sent a wind blade at the flame, which shattered the blade and revealed exceptionally pure fire-element laws.
• Hong Yin tested the flame with her own fire, cutting off her spell as it touched the cluster and burst into sparks.

Li Yan and Hong Yin investigated the flame sealing the wind cave, then tested the cave’s deadly winds and found they could not reach its depths. They remained outside to consider other ways to investigate before deciding whether to reseal it.

• Li Yan tested the flame and found it attacked anything approaching the cave mouth, then reasoned that it might be possible to pass around it.
• Li Yan entered first, confirmed that he and Hong Yin could communicate by sound transmission, and used a fire defense to pass the sealing flame.
• Li Yan advanced several zhang into the cave before the penetrating wind rapidly drained his magic power and forced him to retreat.
• Li Yan told Hong Yin the wind resembled the source of the Heavenly Eye Wind, and Hong Yin entered briefly before retreating as well.
• Hong Yin concluded that the temple’s research had only measured how far cultivators could endure the wind, and she and Li Yan stayed to consider other methods of investigation.

Hong Yin explained why she intended to rebuild Red Buddha Temple in the Immortal Spirit Realm before addressing the wind cave, while Li Yan revealed that his Broken Red Handheld Lantern reacted near it. After confirming the lantern had no known connection to her temple, Li Yan prepared safeguards and brought it out to investigate.

• Hong Yin told Li Yan she understood his wish to investigate the wind cave and believed Red Buddha Temple had guarded it to prevent powerful forces from controlling the Wind God Continent.
• Li Yan explained that his Broken Red Handheld Lantern had reacted near the cave entrance but weakened as he went deeper, and he admitted he could not predict what might happen if he investigated further.
• Hong Yin asked where Li Yan had obtained the lantern, and he said he bought it in a North Pasture Realm market after ascending from the Tianli Clan.
• Hong Yin said Red Buddha Temple had no foothold in the North Pasture Realm, and Li Yan set up an array around the chamber with a one-way opening toward the wind cave.
• Li Yan summoned the Broken Red Handheld Lantern using a spiritual power rope, and Hong Yin sensed only faint spiritual power and no familiar aura from it.

Li Yan and Hong Yin watched the red handheld lantern ignite a candle flame as the Wind Tunnel’s strange winds vanished, then explored the tunnel. After finding only a sealed cave wall and no further anomalies, they prepared to leave and discuss what they had found.

• Li Yan’s red handheld lantern glowed, strained forward, and suddenly revealed a tiny candle flame inside it.
• The flame at the Wind Tunnel’s mouth vanished, and the wind inside the tunnel rapidly died away.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin entered the now-calm tunnel with the lantern and walked about five li to a sealed cave wall.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin probed beyond the wall with their divine senses and found only underground stone, with no continuing passage or strange wind.
• Hong Yin searched the nearby cave again and found no other anomalies, then told Li Yan they should leave and talk.

Li Yan and Hong Yin examined the red hand lantern after its flame merged with it, concluding that the lantern had grown sturdier but remained damaged. Hong Yin proposed drawing the weakened flame back out to see whether the Wind Tunnel's strange wind would return, leaving them poised to test the idea.

• Li Yan explained how he had bought the red hand lantern and described his earlier examinations, while withholding details about the Polar Ice Plains and the ancient cultivator relic city.
• Hong Yin inspected the lantern and found that its flame had shrunk, no longer attacked her divine sense, and caused only slight pain when touched.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin concluded that the flame and lantern might once have been one treasure, and that the flame's power had strengthened the lantern as it merged with it.
• Li Yan warned that the lantern's damaged exterior had not been repaired, so nurturing it might not be enough to restore it.
• Hong Yin asked whether drawing the flame out could bring back the Wind Tunnel's strange wind and let them investigate its depths again.

Li Yan and Hong Yin tried to separate the candle flame from the Red Handheld Lantern, but neither their divine senses nor spells could do so without risking the lantern and flame. Hong Yin let Li Yan take the lantern and asked him to investigate whether it could help Wind God Continent, leaving her to rebuild Red Buddha Temple.

• Li Yan found that his divine sense could not pull the candle flame out of the Red Handheld Lantern without damaging it.
• Li Yan’s spell and Hong Yin’s Buddhist powers also failed to separate the flame from the lantern.
• Hong Yin viewed Li Yan’s arrival and the lantern’s bond with the flame as a matter of Buddhist affinity and asked him to take the lantern and report any useful discoveries.
• Li Yan agreed to study the lantern and help Wind God Continent if it could ease the continent’s calamity.
• Li Yan urged Hong Yin to keep the resources she had gained for rebuilding Red Buddha Temple, and she accepted his sincerity.

Li Yan and Hong Yin left the ruined Red Buddha Temple site after agreeing that Hong Yin would rebuild the sect and entrusting the temple’s future aid to her. More than ten years later, Li Yan returned to the Wangliang Sect without Hong Yin and told Gong Chenying and Zhao Min what had happened.

• Hong Yin accepted Li Yan’s decision not to divide the treasures, and Li Yan sealed the Red Handheld Lantern away with his other wary-making artifacts.
• Hong Yin collected what she could, restored or replaced the site’s defenses, paid her respects at the stone wall, and left with Li Yan.
• Hong Yin gave Li Yan a jade slip containing all nine layers of the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture for Chen Ying and declined his offer to stay at the Wangliang Sect.
• Hong Yin said she would remain in the Cangxuan Realm to search for a place to rebuild the Red Buddha Temple, then parted from Li Yan and flew away.
• More than ten years later, Li Yan returned to the Wangliang Sect, where Gong Chenying and Zhao Min welcomed him; he later told them about Hong Yin and the Red Buddha Temple.

After years of quiet cultivation, Li Yan emerged from a lengthy seclusion still unable to break through from the Void Refinement Realm to the Body Integration Realm. He reflected on his unresolved research into the Red Handheld Lantern and the bottleneck in his cultivation, leaving his next step uncertain.

• Li Yan gave Gong Chenying the complete Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture, and Zhao Min told him that Li Zhaoyan had given birth to a son, making him a maternal grandfather.
• Li Yan spent decades cultivating and secretly researching the Red Handheld Lantern, but it showed no new powers or increase in grade, so he sealed it inside Tuban again.
• After more than sixty years of seclusion, Li Yan emerged when growing irritation warned him that he was stuck at a bottleneck and risked qi deviation.
• Li Yan sat in the rear garden and considered how he had failed to form the Heaven and Earth Five-Element Wheel needed to reach the Body Integration Realm.

Li Yan emerged from more than sixty years of seclusion without finding a path to the Body Integration Realm, though his cultivation had grown stronger. After spending peaceful days with Zhao Min, he learned that two old friends surnamed Pei and Ping had arrived to see him.

• Li Yan reflected on his stalled breakthroughs and learned that his strength had increased by about ten percent during his decades of cultivation.
• Zhao Min visited Li Yan and told him that she had reached the middle stage of Spirit Transformation, Li Wuyi had reached Spirit Transformation, and their other companions had made progress or entered seclusion.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min spent several days together, and Li Yan sent a message inviting Li Zhaoyan and her husband to bring their child to visit.
• A gate disciple reported that two visitors surnamed Pei and Ping claimed to be Li Yan's old friends.
• Li Yan recognized the visitors and prepared to meet them, while Zhao Min asked whether they were ascended cultivators.

Li Yan welcomed Ping Tu and Pei Buchong to the Wangliang Sect, where he reunited with his old friend and met his senior brother for the first time. After privately greeting them, he revealed that his cultivation had reached the late stage and learned that Ping Tu had advanced to the early stage of the Void Refinement Realm.

• Li Yan reassured Zhao Min that the two visitors were male friends he had met while traveling, then left to greet them.
• Ping Tu and Pei Buchong waited outside the Wangliang Sect and discussed Li Yan and the reasons Pei Buchong had never joined a sect.
• Li Yan appeared at the mountain gate, welcomed Ping Tu and Pei Buchong, and led them into the sect.
• Li Yan activated a formation in his courtyard, greeted Ping Tu and Pei Buchong formally, and sat with them to talk.
• Ping Tu asked whether Li Yan was concealing his cultivation, and Li Yan said he had reached the late stage and had recently emerged from seclusion.
• Li Yan remarked that Ping Tu had likely advanced again, while the two visitors displayed cultivation realms of early and middle Void Refinement.

Li Yan reunited with Ping Tu and Pei Buchong and learned that both had reached the Body Integration Realm. After greeting them, he asked how the Five Immortals Sect was faring and why they had come to see him.

• Li Yan considered how Ping Tu and Pei Buchong might conceal their cultivation, then revealed that he had reached the Late Void Refinement Realm and was pursuing the Body Integration Realm.
• Pei Buchong listened in surprise and reflected on Li Yan’s solitary, dangerous path of cultivation, which he deeply admired.
• Ping Tu told Li Yan that he and Pei Buchong had both advanced to the Body Integration Realm and concealed their cultivation with treasures like the Wing Guard.
• Li Yan recovered from his surprise, congratulated Ping Tu and Pei Buchong, and bowed to them.
• Pei Buchong returned Li Yan’s bow and called him the true leader of their generation.
• Li Yan asked about the Five Immortals Sect’s situation and the reason for their visit.

Pei Buchong told Li Yan that the Five Immortals Sect had grown stronger but suffered losses during its disciples’ training, including Jiang Xuan’s death in a fight with two Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators. Li Yan recognized the pair as Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, enemies he had fought before, and suspected their unusual power came from a yin-yang paired technique.

• Pei Buchong reported that he and Ping Tu had reached the Body Integration Realm, while Qianzhong showed signs of nearing a breakthrough and Dong Fuyi remained in seclusion.
• Pei Buchong said the captives Zhao Ziming and Ling Yao had brought back yielded secrets that helped the Five Immortals Sect uncover enemy agents and study countermeasures.
• Pei Buchong told Li Yan that Mo Sen and Jiang Xuan had attacked two Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators but were caught in an array; Jiang Xuan died of his wounds, and Mo Sen returned badly injured with his remains.
• Li Yan asked about the surviving enemies after hearing that the man had called the woman Junior Sister Liu.
• Pei Buchong described the pair’s appearance and techniques, and Li Yan identified them as Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, whom he had fought before.
• Li Yan said Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu’s strange technique had made him lose consciousness and nearly die, and he suspected they used a yin-yang paired cultivation art.

Li Yan told Pei Buchong and Ping Tu about Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, then discussed the Five Immortals Sect’s dangerous new approach to sending disciples out to gain experience. Pei Buchong revealed that he and Ping Tu planned to eliminate Qianyu Sect’s leader and asked Li Yan for details about his attack on the sect.

• Li Yan identified Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu as the likely cultivators who had defeated Mo Sen and Jiang Xuan, and Pei Buchong vowed to seek them out and avenge Jiang Xuan.
• Pei Buchong reported the expedition’s casualties, including Jiang Xuan’s death and Senior Sister Xinzhen’s grave injuries, while Li Yan argued that surviving the journey would help disciples prepare for future dangers.
• Pei Buchong explained that the Five Immortals Sect was using information gathered by traveling disciples to target the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s expanding influence.
• Pei Buchong told Li Yan that he and Ping Tu planned to attack Qianyu Sect and kill its middle-stage Body Integration Realm leader, Su Nanzi.
• Pei Buchong asked Li Yan to explain his attack on Qianyu Sect, saying the details could help the mission, and wondered how Li Yan had managed it while still at Late Void Refinement Realm.

Li Yan told Pei Buchong and Ping Tu how he had fought Su Nanzi and offered to guide them on their mission against Qianyu Sect. The three traveled into Qianyu Sect’s territory, where they began gathering information while keeping their true strength concealed.

• Li Yan described Su Nanzi’s techniques and answered Pei Buchong and Ping Tu’s questions about their encounter.
• Li Yan joined Pei Buchong and Ping Tu on their mission, gave Zhao Min a false explanation for his departure, and left Wangliang Sect with them.
• The three traveled northwest through Cangxuan Realm, concealed their cultivation, and dealt with an ambush by four Void Refinement Realm cultivators.
• After reaching Qianyu Sect’s territory, the three chose to investigate Night Nether Sect, a vassal sect, before approaching Qianyu Sect itself.
• Pei Buchong and Ping Tu led the infiltration of Night Nether Sect, and the three secretly soul-searched several Spirit Transformation cultivators to learn about Qianyu Sect without alerting them.

Pei Buchong, Ping Tu, and Li Yan investigated Qianyu Sect and found its defenses far stronger than before, with patrols too tightly coordinated for them to capture anyone safely. Pei Buchong briefly infiltrated the sect and sensed something unsettling in two places, leaving the three to investigate the northwest and northeast areas.

• Pei Buchong concluded from the information they gathered that Su Nanzi had likely transferred more cultivators from the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect to Qianyu Sect.
• Months later, Pei Buchong, Ping Tu, and Li Yan met outside Qianyu Sect and compared their findings from the surrounding forces.
• Ping Tu and Li Yan reported that Qianyu Sect's patrols and defenses prevented them from capturing anyone without raising an alarm.
• Li Yan decided against infiltrating through the Sect Protection Array because he sensed a hidden danger and suspected additional arrays or traps inside.
• Pei Buchong revealed that he had slipped into Qianyu Sect through its valley entrance, then withdrawn after sensing danger in the northwest and northeast.

Pei Buchong, Ping Tu, and Li Yan suspected the Qianyu Sect had hidden Body Integration Realm cultivators or other dangers waiting for them, so they abandoned a direct assault and went to Yuanqi Market to gather information. Their first attempt to learn more by capturing Qianyu Sect cultivators yielded only news that Su Nanzi had rearranged the sect's leadership.

• Pei Buchong sensed danger from within the Qianyu Sect, and Li Yan and Ping Tu agreed that an ambush or powerful hidden cultivators might be waiting.
• Ping Tu proposed defeating the Qianyu Sect's forces one by one, and Li Yan suggested gathering information at a nearby market first.
• Pei Buchong consulted a map jade slip, and the three chose Yuanqi Market as their destination.
• Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu disguised themselves, lowered their cultivation to the Spirit Transformation Realm, and entered the busy market area.
• The three captured and soul-searched two Qianyu Sect cultivators, learning that Su Nanzi had rearranged the sect master and elders.