Chapter Summaries

Bai Yan discovered Chi Wu dead from poison and Li Yan gravely wounded after the formations collapsed. He tried to kill Li Yan, but Xiang Yanxiu intervened and shielded him as the two cultivators fought.

• Bai Yan saw Chi Wu's lifeless body and Li Yan's severe injuries inside the ruined formations, then attacked Li Yan in a rage.
• Xiang Yanxiu intercepted Bai Yan's strike, but their powers' collision sent Li Yan crashing into a nearby mountain and worsened his wounds.
• Xiang Yanxiu blocked Bai Yan from reaching Li Yan and fought him while staying alert to the remaining formations.
• Li Yan crawled out of the crater and swallowed pills as Xiang Yanxiu repelled Bai Yan's repeated divine sense attacks.
• Bai Yan continued searching for a way to kill both men, especially Li Yan, while Xiang Yanxiu's barrier kept his attacks back.

Xiang Yanxiu fought Bai Yan while protecting the recovering Li Yan, until the supposedly dead Chi Wu briefly awoke and Bai Yan seized the chance to escape with her. Bai Yan teleported away despite Xiang Yanxiu's attack, while Li Yan revealed that he had planned to kill the fox demons and was not finished with them.

• Xiang Yanxiu and Bai Yan traded fierce attacks, each struggling to overcome the other's defenses.
• Chi Wu unexpectedly coughed and showed faint signs of life, shocking Bai Yan and Xiang Yanxiu.
• Bai Yan reached Chi Wu, gave her Pills, and defended their escape while Xiang Yanxiu attacked them.
• Bai Yan used his fox tails to distract Xiang Yanxiu and reached a prepared teleportation formation with Chi Wu.
• Xiang Yanxiu struck at the formation but failed to stop Bai Yan and Chi Wu from teleporting away.
• Li Yan opened his eyes and revealed that he had searched Chi Wu's soul and intended to kill both fox demons.

Li Yan secretly sabotaged Bai Yan and Chi Wu’s teleportation formation, turning their escape into a catastrophic spatial collapse. Xiang Yanxiu survived the blast and recognized that the couple had been shredded by spatial power, while Li Yan appeared shocked and bewildered.

• Li Yan used the formation blast to scatter severed fingers into the grass near Bai Yan’s teleportation formation and had made Chi Wu appear to be dying so Bai Yan would flee with her.
• Bai Yan carried Chi Wu into the teleportation formation while Xiang Yanxiu attacked its outer defensive formation.
• As the teleportation began, Li Yan’s severed fingers struck several points on the formation base and broke it.
• The damaged teleportation formation exploded, and violent spatial power engulfed Bai Yan and Chi Wu.
• The blast destroyed Bai Yan’s defensive formation and sent Xiang Yanxiu’s blue meteor hammer flying backward.
• Xiang Yanxiu sensed traces of spatial power shredding and turned to see Li Yan staring at the destruction with apparent shock.

Li Yan deceived Xiang Yanxiu into believing Bai Yan had died in the teleportation array, then pretended to recover while Xiang Yanxiu searched for traps. After Li Yan regained his strength, they entered a cave to begin breaking the concealed seal, and a landscape painting appeared on the wall.

• Li Yan claimed that Chi Wu's poisoned Nascent Soul had accidentally exploded during teleportation, and Xiang Yanxiu believed Bai Yan was likely dead.
• Xiang Yanxiu checked Li Yan's injuries, searched the valley, found two more traps, and laid additional formations nearby.
• Li Yan meditated for two days, accepted Pills from Xiang Yanxiu, and pretended to recover for three more days despite already being healed.
• Xiang Yanxiu led Li Yan into a small cave and explained how to use Qiongqi's power to help break the restriction seal.
• Xiang Yanxiu activated an ancient coin, sending four-colored radiance into cracks in the cave wall, where a landscape painting began to appear.

Xiang Yanxiu and Li Yan broke the restriction hidden in a cave-wall painting, using an ancient coin and Li Yan’s Qiongqi power to suppress its retaliation. They opened a purple gate that revealed spirit fields filled with spiritual plants.

• Xiang Yanxiu used the ancient coin and hand seals to erase the mountain peaks from the painting and evaporate the river within it.
• As the painting warped and the cave shook, Li Yan sensed the power of Qiongqi and sent his own power into the river image at Xiang Yanxiu’s direction.
• When stronger force intensified the cave’s collapse, Li Yan used the Prison Breaker technique to suppress the painting’s retaliation and stabilize the restriction.
• Xiang Yanxiu sent purple light through the ancient coin, causing the river to arch into a gate that revealed several spirit fields.
• Xiang Yanxiu told Li Yan to stop supplying power.

Li Yan and Xiang Yanxiu left the spirit field after dividing its herbs, and Li Yan found no clues at the Blood Soul Black Tiger ruins. His gains included new insight from devouring Qiongqi power and knowledge of a hidden, frigid region that might become a home for the Snow Mosquito clan.

• Li Yan chose thirty percent of the spirit plants and medicinal herbs as payment, and Xiang Yanxiu honored their agreement.
• Li Yan searched the suspected Blood Soul Black Tiger ruins with Xiang Yanxiu but found only broken stones and no clues about Qiongqi.
• Li Yan devoured the power released from the restriction, felt new insight stir, and preserved it to study after returning to the Pojun Sect.
• Li Yan learned from Chi Wu's memories that Bai Yan and Chi Wu had planned to visit a hidden land of extreme cold containing a crystalline region.
• Li Yan realized that the secret land might provide the Snow Mosquito clan with a suitable home, though Qianji and the clan still needed to become strong enough to protect it.

After returning to the Purple God Dragon-Elephant Clan, Li Yan left with Xiang Yanxiu and Qianji, while Xiang Wentian's group prepared to ambush him along his route. They learned that Xiang Yanxiu had personally escorted Li Yan through the teleportation array, leaving their plans uncertain.

• Li Yan and Xiang Yanxiu returned to the clan after escaping three Radiant Gold-Eating Bee great demons, and Li Yan decided to delay finding territory for the Snow Mosquito Clan.
• Xiang Yanxiu escorted Li Yan and Qianji away through the teleportation array, while Zi Kun stayed behind to pursue his rise in the clan.
• Xiang Wentian and five accomplices planned to ambush Li Yan after he left the clan and arranged traps along likely routes.
• After losing track of Li Yan, Xiang Wentian learned from his watchers that Xiang Yanxiu had escorted Li Yan through the teleportation array and summoned his accomplices.

Li Yan returned from the Heavenly Demon Grassland to the Pojun Sect, relieved to find its defenses intact and eager to learn how it had fared in his absence. Shangguan Tianque told him that the sect had secretly taken control of the Changlin Sect and established a fearsome reputation by driving off attackers.

• Xiang Wentian and the others realized Xiang Yanxiu had escorted Li Yan away under an agreement, and they abandoned their plans to attack him.
• After reaching the edge of the Heavenly Demon Grassland, Li Yan and Qianji flew back to the Pojun Sect, where Li Yan found its strengthened defenses showed no signs of a major battle.
• Li Yan met Elder Tang and summoned the sect’s allies to discuss its situation, while Elder Tang teased him for returning when he had promised.
• Shangguan Tianque explained that the Changlin Sect’s expanded mist had swallowed invading Demon Beasts and cultivators, while other powers that attacked had suffered heavy losses.
• After years of probing, nearby powers discovered that the force controlling the former Changlin Sect was the Pojun Sect.

Li Yan and the leaders of Pojun Sect and Soul Suppressing Palace reviewed their years of covert development, their alliance, and the threat posed by Chunyang Hall. They decided to keep building their strength and wait for Chunyang Hall’s response, confident that the sect’s defenses could blunt a limited long-distance attack.

• Shangguan Tianque explained that Pojun Sect had revealed its name while seeking resources and deterring nearby factions, and Li Yan agreed that exposure had become necessary.
• Master Lan and Tang Feng described the sect’s defenses and the secret cooperation with Soul Suppressing Palace, whose cultivators were known within Pojun Sect as the reclusive Prison Clan.
• Shangguan Tianque’s leaders had rooted out disloyal members and helped the relocated disciples grow accustomed to working alongside the Prison Clan.
• Li Yan decided Pojun Sect should continue developing rather than destroy Chunyang Hall outright, while remaining ready to strike if Chunyang Hall attacked.
• Zuo Qiudan and Elder Tang predicted that Chunyang Hall might send a small force of powerful cultivators, which Pojun Sect’s grand formation could potentially destroy.

Li Yan prepared for Chunyang Hall’s arrival, checked Ding Shuying’s cultivation, and inspected the treasures he had taken from Chi Wu. He discovered Chi Wu’s rare medicinal plants and learned that her fox demons were mutated Nethernight Foxes created through a dangerous secret technique.

• Zuo Qiudan explained that he had added poison pills and toxic liquids to the sect’s formations, while Li Yan warned that former allies from Chunyang Hall might be among their enemies.
• Li Yan examined Ding Shuying’s cultivation, answered her questions, and gave her pills suited to her current stage.
• Li Yan transplanted Chi Wu’s rare medicinal plants into Tuban’s space, planning to preserve them as seeds and seedlings.
• Li Yan found more than fifty blue-furred fox demons in Chi Wu’s storage space and used soul search on one of them.
• Li Yan learned that Bai Yan and Chi Wu had used young Nethernight Foxes in a secret mutation technique, with half of the foxes dying after years of unconsciousness.

Li Yan examined Chi Wu’s treasures and records, learning about the Frost Marrow Jade Crystal Branch and the deadly Great Annihilation Star-Burial Diagram. He left the distant treasure site for later and recognized that the diagram could threaten even Tribulation Transcendence cultivators, though it lacked its concealment counterpart.

• Li Yan slaughtered the fifty-odd mutated fox demons and sorted through Chi Wu’s storage treasures.
• Li Yan studied Chi Wu’s jade slips and learned that Bai Yan had sought the Frost Marrow Jade Crystal Branch to help him break through to the eighth tier.
• Li Yan memorized Chi Wu and Bai Yan’s marked locations but set aside the Frost Marrow Jade Crystal Branch because its remote, icy location was guarded by a possibly ferocious Mystic Frost Insect.
• Li Yan discovered that the golden stone was one of two implements for the Great Annihilation Star-Burial Diagram, a powerful offensive array that required a second diagram to conceal its killing intent.
• Li Yan learned that the array could potentially kill even a Tribulation Transcendence Realm cultivator, but its immense power and lack of concealment made it unsuitable for an ambush.

Li Yan tested three objects from Chi Wu's stash, discovering that the red bone could unleash powerful metal- and fire-attribute attacks while the purple leaf impeded divine sense. He turned to examine the remaining black fishhook, whose only apparent feature was its icy aura.

• Li Yan put away the Great Annihilation Star-Burial Diagram, deciding to study it somewhere its killing intent would not alarm the sect.
• Li Yan tested the red bone and found that metal-attribute vital qi made it exceptionally hard, while fire-attribute vital qi sent a broad barrage of sharp needles at enemies.
• Li Yan concluded that the red bone's abilities likely came from the demon beast itself and realized Chi Wu could have posed a far greater threat had she used it.
• Li Yan probed the purple leaf with his divine sense and found that it slowed its spread while rapidly consuming it.
• Li Yan tested the purple leaf with different vital qi and spell techniques, but it did not respond; he set it aside and examined the black fishhook and its transparent thread.

Li Yan examined Chi Wu’s ordinary-looking fishhook and thread, then set them aside and studied other ways to strengthen his combat power while postponing the sealed Qiongqi power’s comprehension. Meanwhile, six Void Refinement elders from Chunyang Hall neared Pojun Sect, having confirmed it was the sect they sought to destroy.

• Li Yan found no special use for Chi Wu’s black fishhook or transparent thread, but kept the red bone and purple leaf among his valuable gains.
• Li Yan decided to postpone opening the seal containing the Qiongqi power until he had personally checked the sect’s situation and judged the timing safe.
• Six Chunyang Hall elders, including Elder Yu and the Feng brothers, flew toward Pojun Sect after months of travel and debated whether to attack immediately or investigate further.
• The Feng brothers had confirmed that Pojun Sect was the sect Chunyang Hall sought, but their observations showed its defenses were formidable enough to make them wary of attacking.

Chunyang Hall decided to send six Void Refinement Realm cultivators to destroy the Pojun Sect, believing its flight was an unplanned defection and that it had no powerful allies. As the attackers approached, Li Yan sensed several formidable auras above the forest outside the sect.

• The Feng brothers reported their intelligence, and Chunyang Hall's leaders approved an attack on the Pojun Sect despite some factions refusing to contribute troops.
• Chunyang Hall concluded that Shangguan Tianque had prepared the sect's escape, but had found no major faction willing to shelter it, and ordered six Void Refinement Realm elders to exterminate it.
• The attackers agreed to investigate along the way, while Elder Yu resolved to capture Zuo Qiudan alive and torment him for revenge.
• Li Yan sensed several powerful auras speeding toward the sect and reaching the sky above the forest.

Six Chunyang Hall elders confronted Shangguan Tianque, Zuo Qiudan, and Li Yan at the Pojun Sect, accusing them of betrayal and demanding their return. When the elders attacked, a concealed formation trapped them, and both sides prepared to fight inside it.

• Six Chunyang Hall elders arrived at the mist-shrouded Pojun Sect and threatened to execute Shangguan Tianque and Zuo Qiudan for leaving Chunyang Hall.
• Shangguan Tianque, Zuo Qiudan, and Li Yan emerged, and the elders accused them of abandoning the sect that had protected and supported them.
• Shangguan Tianque argued that Pojun Sect had paid tribute and fulfilled its obligations, then began explaining why they had left Chunyang Hall.
• Elder Yu interrupted Shangguan Tianque and led the elders in attacks against Zuo Qiudan, Shangguan Tianque, and Li Yan.
• Li Yan retreated as a concealed formation filled the area with mist, trapping the six Chunyang Hall elders.
• The elders recognized the formation as a trapping and concealing formation and moved to surround their targets, while one cautioned the others to watch for further traps.

Li Yan and his allies ambushed six Chunyang Hall cultivators, using a formation and hidden Soul Suppressing Palace experts to turn the attackers’ planned assault into an encirclement. Pojun Sect killed four enemies and captured two, and Shangguan Tianque, Zuo Qiudan, and Tang Feng later joined Li Yan in the sect master’s main hall.

• Li Yan retreated from the attackers while Tang Feng and another ally blocked their strikes, revealing the hidden forces surrounding the Chunyang Hall cultivators.
• Shangguan Tianque and Zuo Qiudan triggered the battle, and Soul Suppressing Palace cultivators attacked the trapped enemies with ordinary spells.
• Li Yan withdrew to the sect master’s main hall while Yu Banjiang and the sect’s elders and disciples watched the battle through the formation.
• After roughly half an hour, Shangguan Tianque’s side killed four Chunyang Hall cultivators and captured two, with five of their own wounded.
• Shangguan Tianque, Zuo Qiudan, and Tang Feng entered the main hall and found Li Yan waiting there.

After the Pojun Sect and Soul Suppressing Palace killed six Chunyang Hall elders in a prepared ambush, Li Yan warned that the enemy would soon retaliate. A month later, Chunyang Hall’s leaders prepared a major response, while two Supreme Elders reflected on their earlier distance from the conflict.

• Li Yan learned from Soul Search that Chunyang Hall’s intelligence matched the Pojun Sect’s deductions, and he warned Shangguan Tianque and the others that the next attack would be fiercer.
• Shangguan Tianque and Tang Feng killed the two captured Chunyang Hall cultivators after searching their souls, fearing they could expose the sect’s allies or cause trouble if left alive.
• A month later, Elder Shi told Chunyang Hall’s Supreme Elders and Void Refinement elders that the six dispatched elders were likely lost and proposed sending a powerful force to rescue them and destroy the Pojun Sect.
• The Chunyang Hall elders learned that Hyacinths had reported all six men vanishing in the fog after a brief battle, leaving their fate unconfirmed.
• The brocade-robed Supreme Elder privately noted that he and the Daoist Supreme Elder had kept their distance from the earlier decision to attack the Pojun Sect.

The elders of Chunyang Hall debated why Pojun Sect had defeated six Void Refinement Realm elders, with Elder Wei suspecting outside allies and Elder Shi insisting they retaliate. Elder Hu prepared to lead another expedition while Illusory Valley True Person refused to commit, leaving the response to Pojun Sect unresolved.

• Elder Shi argued that Pojun Sect had used an auxiliary mist formation to lure the six elders into a deadly grand formation, while Elder Wei proposed that nearby allies had secretly reinforced the sect.
• Elder Shi and Elder Hu insisted Chunyang Hall had to attack Pojun Sect again, and Elder Hu said he would personally investigate and avenge the missing elders.
• Elder Wei agreed to send several Void Refinement Realm elders with Elder Hu but privately planned for them to avoid serious risk if Pojun Sect proved difficult to defeat.
• Illusory Valley True Person declined to participate, arguing that Elder Hu and the forces already being sent should be enough to deal with a single sect.
• Elder Shi and Elder Hu were left frustrated as Illusory Valley True Person's refusal closed off further demands for support.

Illusory Valley True Person sent Elder Shi and Elder Hu with eight Void Refinement Realm elders to confront Pojun Sect, while Chunyang Hall’s disciples speculated about the expedition. Two months later, Pojun Sect’s leaders learned of the approaching force through covert scouts and prepared to track its movements.

• Illusory Valley True Person arranged for Chongyangzi to be punished and sent away from Chunyang Hall, then left Elder Shi and Elder Hu to organize the expedition.
• Elder Shi and Elder Hu departed with eight Void Refinement Realm elders, prompting Chunyang Hall’s disciples to suspect the group was heading to deal with Pojun Sect.
• Elder Hu joined the expedition because he distrusted Pojun Sect and wanted to personally confront Shangguan Tianque and the others if the previous six elders had died.
• Two months later, Shangguan Tianque told Elder Tang, Elder Lan, Tang Feng, and Li Yan that scouts had spotted the ten Chunyang Hall cultivators approaching.
• Elder Tang recognized that Pojun Sect’s plan to watch teleportation routes had worked, and the group discussed using scouts and trading houses to relay records of powerful arrivals.

Li Yan and Soul Suppressing Palace prepared to ambush Chunyang Hall’s force after learning that it included two Body Integration Realm cultivators and eight Void Refinement Realm cultivators. As Elder Shi and Elder Hu traveled toward Pojun Sect, they planned to split up and use Elder Wei’s two men to test the defenders.

• Shangguan Tianque described the ten Chunyang Hall cultivators, and Li Yan identified which factions their Void Refinement Realm members belonged to.
• Elder Tang assessed the two Body Integration Realm cultivators’ fire-based arts, while the group agreed to attack the enemy proactively at a designated location.
• Master Lan warned Li Yan and Tang Feng to stay alert, and Elder Tang led the group out immediately to reach the ambush site in time.
• Elder Shi and Elder Hu arrived with their force at Bone Echo Market and continued toward the Heavenly Demon Grassland without stopping.
• Elder Shi and Elder Hu decided to split up near their destination and send the two Void Refinement Realm cultivators from Elder Wei ahead to test Pojun Sect’s defenses.