Chapter Summaries

Shuang Qingqing arranged for Li Yan and Zhao Min to take Bai Rou away while she prepared to seek the Immortal-Spirit Realm with Shuang Fengyan, and she gave Li Yan a booklet of Nascent Soul insights. When Li Yan recognized a pattern on its cover, Shuang Qingqing reacted with shock, suggesting it was connected to someone from her past.

• Shuang Fengyan accepted Shuang Qingqing's account and proposed taking her to the Immortal-Spirit Realm to restore her memories, while Meng Shangmo placed a tracking restriction on her.
• Shuang Qingqing asked Li Yan and Zhao Min to take Bai Rou away and later bring her back to the Desolate Moon Continent.
• Shuang Qingqing gave Li Yan a booklet containing her master's and her own insights on forming a Nascent Soul.
• Li Yan recognized a dark bluish-green pattern on the booklet and asked Shuang Qingqing whether it was significant.
• Shuang Qingqing sprang up and asked Li Yan if he had seen the pattern before.

Li Yan revealed that Shuang Wuyan and Shuang Chongshan might descend from Shuang Tongguan’s Du Ye Clan, prompting Shuang Qingqing and Shuang Fengyan to investigate. The Third Elder returned with the missing group, and Li Yan reunited with Shuang Wuyan and Shuang Chongshan in Shuang Fengyan’s cave residence.

• Li Yan told Shuang Qingqing that he had seen the Divine Puppet Art’s mark among people surnamed Shuang from the Du Ye Clan, and she urgently questioned him about it.
• Shuang Fengyan agreed to have the Third Elder investigate Shuang Wuyan and the others and visit the Du Ye Clan, while Li Yan recorded their details and Falling Star Valley’s location on a jade slip.
• Shuang Qingqing taught Li Yan and Zhao Min Dao principles in her courtyard while they waited for news.
• Bai Yihe noticed Shuang Qingqing, Bai Rou, and two Gold Core Realm cultivators visiting Shuang Fengyan, but misread the reason for their meeting.
• Shuang Qingqing and Li Yan went to Shuang Fengyan’s cave residence, where Li Yan recognized Shuang Wuyan and Shuang Chongshan and greeted them with relief.

Mu Guyue searched for a vanished cave entrance, then attacked the Primal Chaos Mystic Gold Dragon in the Demon-Devouring Abyss. Meanwhile, the Heavenly Spirit Clan’s Third Elder found Shuang Wuyan and offered to bring her branch back to the clan after verifying her puppet-making technique.

• Mu Guyue searched the seafloor for the entrance to Heavenly Spirit Cave, but could not find it and grew furious.
• Mu Guyue entered a sealed cave in Demon-Devouring Abyss and cut away moss to reveal a passage, but the route into the mysterious cave was still gone.
• Mu Guyue attacked the demonic-qi barrier around the Primal Chaos Mystic Gold Dragon’s cave, and he angrily confronted her before they fought again.
• The Heavenly Spirit Clan’s Third Elder secretly traveled to Falling Star Valley and found Shuang Wuyan refining a puppet.
• The Third Elder told Shuang Wuyan that he had come to find Shuang Tongguan’s branch and asked her to demonstrate the Heavenly Spirit Clan’s orthodox puppet-making method so he could take them back to the clan.

The Third Elder explained how Shuang Tongguan’s descendants became the Frost branch of the Duye Clan and eventually returned to the Heavenly Spirit Clan. Shuang Qingqing then approached Frost Wuyan and asked whether she had heard the name Shuang Qianhan.

• Frost Wuyan refined materials for the Third Elder after realizing she could not resist him.
• The Third Elder told Shuang Qingqing and the others that Shuang Tongguan’s family had fled Bai Fengtian, joined the war alliance, and been stranded on the Lost Continent.
• Shuang Tongguan’s descendants settled in the Duye Clan, which later suppressed them and failed to help when their branch was attacked.
• Shuang Fengyan vowed to remember the Duye Clan, while Frost Wuyan asked how Li Yan had found them.
• Frost Chongshan’s family thanked Li Yan for saving them and helping them return to the clan.
• Shuang Qingqing approached Frost Wuyan and asked whether she had heard of Shuang Qianhan.

Shuang Qingqing confirmed Shuang Wuyan’s branch descended from Shuang Tongguan by revealing secret knowledge of the Flower-Piercing Trace-Seeking Disk and demonstrating its power. She restored the branch to its ancestral land, while Shuang Fengyan imprisoned Bai Yihe and accused his ancestor Bai Fengtian of betraying the clan.

• Shuang Qingqing told Shuang Wuyan she knew the Flower-Piercing Trace-Seeking Disk’s hidden flaw and asked to inspect it.
• Shuang Wuyan produced the ancient compass and butterfly, and Shuang Qingqing made it emit forty-nine streaks of azure light.
• Shuang Qingqing led Shuang Wuyan and the others to Shuang Tongguan’s ancestral land and moved the medicinal fields into her spirit-storage pouch.
• Shuang Fengyan told the imprisoned Bai Yihe that Shuang Qingqing’s descendants had been found and that Bai Fengtian was suspected of attacking disciples and killing clansmen.
• Bai Yihe denied the accusations and blamed Shuang Qingqing, but Shuang Fengyan struck him into the wall before he could finish.

Shuang Qingqing resolved the danger surrounding her descendants and prepared to escort Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Bai Rou back to the Desolate Moon Continent. Li Yan and Zhao Min set their sights on the Soul Prison Clan’s underground secret cavern, while a message from Li Yan reached Su Hong just before she departed.

• Shuang Fengyan restrained Bai Yihe, learned through a Soul Search that he had followed his ancestors’ orders, and decided to take him along when ascending.
• Shuang Fengyan, Shuang Qingqing, and the Third Elder searched the Bai lineage’s cultivators and altered memories to conceal Shuang Qingqing’s identity and protect her descendants.
• Shuang Qingqing agreed to escort Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Bai Rou back to the Desolate Moon Continent after they visited the Howling Cold Stone, estimating the round trip would take no more than forty years.
• Li Yan planned to enter the Soul Prison Clan’s underground secret cavern, but Zhao Min said she had a token and would go with him.
• Shuang Qingqing urged Bai Rou to form her Golden Core as Li Yan’s growing strength reminded Bai Rou of the distance between them.
• Su Hong received a jade slip sent by Li Yan shortly before she was due to leave.

Su Hong struggled to make sense of Shuang Qingqing’s dealings with the Heavenly Spirit Clan while Li Yan and Zhao Min traveled to the Soul Prison Clan’s underground secret grotto. After entering, they encountered Wustu and several other cultivators, then emerged into a vast, ruined desert.

• Su Hong learned that Shuang Fengyan had returned to the Heavenly Spirit Clan and granted Shuang Qingqing a spiritual-energy-rich place to cultivate, but she could not determine their connection to Li Yan and Zhao Min.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min reached the far west of the Green Continent and approached the Soul Prison Clan’s underground secret grotto with entry tokens from Su Hong.
• An unseen voice demanded their tokens or twenty thousand low-grade spirit stones, and Li Yan and Zhao Min prepared to enter the array restriction.
• Five Golden Core Realm cultivators arrived, including Wustu, whom Li Yan and Zhao Min recognized.
• When the hunchbacked cultivator’s companions shifted to encircle Wustu, Li Yan told Zhao Min to leave, and they activated their tokens to pass through the barrier.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min arrived in a vast, dim desert filled with the ruins of massive stone structures.

Li Yan and Zhao Min entered the Soul Prison Clan secret grotto and flew toward Blackwater Gorge, while Ustu persuaded his companions to target them for their possible poison skills and valuable rewards. As Li Yan and Zhao Min crossed a field of ruins, they vanished in a flash of light just as yellow projectiles pierced the sky where they had been.

• Li Yan and Zhao Min entered the secret grotto, concealed their auras, and hurried away after encountering Ustu and his companions at the entrance.
• Ustu told his four companions that Li Yan and Zhao Min had poisoned him and might be seeking the Black Cloud Frost-Coagulating Insect.
• Ustu revealed that Li Yan and Zhao Min had exposed the Heavenly Orchid Clan's crimes and received access to the Wood Clarity Pool and gifts from the allied clans.
• Ustu's companions decided to pursue the Black Cloud Frost-Coagulating Insect first and search for Li Yan and Zhao Min afterward.
• Li Yan led Zhao Min toward Blackwater Gorge, but as they flew over ruined houses, they suddenly vanished while yellow projectiles shot up from the sand.

Li Yan and Zhao Min were attacked by a crossbow insect colony, whose volleys grew stronger as their shots accumulated. Zhao Min began refining the colony’s king while Li Yan and Zi Kun held off the swarm, leaving the insect king still struggling against her control.

• Li Yan and Zhao Min evaded the crossbow insects’ ambush, then Li Yan blocked their volleys with a wall of black energy as the shots accumulated and destroyed the rooftop beneath them.
• Zhao Min asked Li Yan to keep the insects focused on him while she formed spell seals to refine their king.
• Zhao Min’s technique briefly dazed the colony, drew its peak second-tier king from underground, and left her straining to subdue it.
• Li Yan summoned Zi Kun, who used the Great Dragon-Elephant Array to absorb the insects’ attacks while Li Yan sent the black energy wall flying away.

Li Yan and Zhao Min subdued a swarm of crossbow insects, with Zhao Min beginning to refine their king and discovering the insects could reclaim their magical power. As they explored the ruins of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, they detected an unusual spiritual-energy fluctuation in a buried ancient pagoda.

• Li Yan drove off nearby cultivators and Demon Beasts while Zhao Min subdued the crossbow insect king with a talisman and branded it through her Divine Sense.
• Zhao Min gained partial control of the king, which stopped the swarm's attack and led the crossbow insects to absorb the magical power they had released against the Great Dragon-Elephant Array.
• Li Yan told Zi Kun to stay hidden, and Zhao Min stored the crossbow insects in Meng Zhiyuan's spirit storage pouch before the group left the ruins.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min discussed the unusual buildings and history of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage as they flew through the underground secret caverns.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min detected a faint, unusual spiritual-energy fluctuation inside a ruined ancient pagoda partly buried beneath the sand.

Li Yan and Zhao Min entered a ruined tower and were trapped in a formation with Min Qi, a green-robed Golden Core cultivator, and a wounded gray-robed elder and his disciple. Li Yan asked Min Qi to release them, but as they prepared to leave, the elder offered his possessions in a desperate bid to secure his disciple’s rescue.

• Li Yan and Zhao Min investigated the tower and sensed spiritual energy coming from a withered beast bone inside.
• As they tried to retreat, the tower transformed into a stone chamber where Min Qi had trapped them alongside a wounded gray-robed elder and his disciple.
• The elder and his disciple begged Li Yan and Zhao Min for help, while Min Qi denied attacking them and claimed the formation had struck on its own.
• Li Yan asked Min Qi to open the formation so they could leave, and Min Qi revealed a way out.
• The gray-robed elder hurriedly offered Li Yan and Zhao Min his Storage Pouches, cultivation methods, spirit stones, and a magical treasure if they would take his disciple.

Li Yan and Zhao Min launched an attack on the blue-robed man after he offered a Storage Pouch. The story then shifted to Qin Hu, a modern soldier reborn as an exiled marquis, who realized he had been framed and set out to survive the brutal conditions at the front.

• Li Yan stopped reaching for Zhao Min when the gray-robed old man tossed him a Storage Pouch, then ordered Zhao Min to move and charged the blue-robed man.
• Qin Hu woke in a military tent and recovered the memories of his transmigration into the body of the disgraced Champion Marquis.
• Qin Hu recalled how Chen Ruoli and Princess Chang'an had helped frame him, leading to his exile to the front lines.
• Qin Hu and Qin An went out to stand watch in a snowstorm while the sentries extinguished their warming fire and left them exposed.
• Qin Hu resolved to survive, asked how much money Qin An had, and decided to seek help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

Li Yan exposed the ambush planned by the gray-robed elder, the man in blue, and their concealed companion, then turned their attack against them. He destroyed the man in blue and poisoned the gray-robed elder, whose Golden Core he caught as it tried to flee.

• Li Yan explained how the enemy had planned to ambush him and Zhao Min near the formation exit, and Zhao Min trusted his warning.
• The gray-robed elder and the man in blue attacked Li Yan and Zhao Min, but Li Yan unexpectedly struck the man in blue alongside Zhao Min.
• Li Yan's elbow smashed through the man in blue's defenses and killed him, while Zhao Min knocked aside his magical fork.
• The gray-robed elder's blade struck Li Yan, but poison on the blade dissolved the elder's hands and spread through his body.
• Zhao Min seized the man in blue's Golden Core, and Li Yan struck the gray-robed elder's fleeing Golden Core out of the air.

Li Yan and Zhao Min defeated the three cultivators by capturing their golden cores, then killed them and escaped the ruined tower’s formation. They discovered a large cache of stolen treasure and a cultivation method called “Ebb Tide!”

• The gray-robed elder abandoned his poisoned body and tried to bargain with Li Yan and Zhao Min, while the blue-robed man begged for help.
• Li Yan secretly used illusion poison to fool the gray-robed elder with an ordinary pill, knocking his golden core unconscious.
• Li Yan destroyed the gray-robed elder’s golden core, and Zhao Min killed the blue-robed man; Li Yan then killed the unconscious young woman.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min broke the formation and reappeared in the ruined tower, finding no cultivators or demon beasts nearby.
• They searched thirteen Storage Pouches and Spirit Storage Pouches, discovering stolen goods, spirit stones, magical treasures, cultivation methods, and the “Ebb Tide!” technique.

Li Yan and Zhao Min reached a vast mist-covered plain inside the underground secret cavern and set out toward the river where the Howling Cold Stone had appeared. Elsewhere, Wusitu and his four companions prepared to capture a Black Cloud Frost Condensation Insect near a freezing river.

• Li Yan regretted killing the delicate-featured girl before learning more about her aura-concealment technique, then told Zhao Min about it.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min crossed the desert after surviving ambushes by cultivators and demon beasts, and entered a dark canyon beneath a towering black mountain.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min emerged onto a huge plain covered in mist, checked their direction, and headed toward a river about fifty thousand li away.
• Wusitu and his companions surfaced from the frigid river after setting up a Cloud Net Formation to trap a Black Cloud Frost Condensation Insect.
• An Die agreed to prepare a concealment formation while Wusitu and the others hid and recovered, unaware that Li Yan and Zhao Min were nearby.

Wusitu and four cultivators ambushed Li Yan and Zhao Min while the pair searched the riverbank for Coldwail Stones. The five attackers surrounded them and launched an assault on Zhao Min, leaving Li Yan facing Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist.

• Wusitu and his companions hid under An Die’s formation and argued over how to divide the Blackcloud Frostcondensation Insects’ spoils.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min searched opposite banks of the river for Coldwail Stones after deciding the mountain’s submerged side was the likeliest place to find them.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min sensed danger and tried to regroup, but five cultivators led by Wusitu emerged above them and surrounded them separately.
• Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist confronted Li Yan, while Li Yan claimed Wusitu’s ancestor knew about their encounter.
• The black-cloaked man urged the group to act, and he, An Die, and the hunchbacked man attacked Zhao Min.

Li Yan fell under the gaunt, withered old Daoist’s mind-controlling technique and Ustu’s life-draining attack while Zhao Min was surrounded by powerful enemies. Zhao Min fought through the encirclement to reach Li Yan and struck the hunchbacked body cultivator with a Bone-Piercing Fist, cracking his turtle shell.

• The gaunt, withered old Daoist subdued Li Yan with a technique that filled his mind with thoughts of surrender, and Ustu’s black qi rapidly drained his life force.
• The black-cloaked man and two allies attacked Zhao Min, forcing her to evade their coordinated assault.
• Zhao Min saw Li Yan withering under Ustu’s attack and charged toward him despite the enemies blocking her path.
• The hunchbacked man used a powerful red-patterned boot and his turtle-shell defense to intercept Zhao Min as An Die sent a demonic centipede after her.
• Zhao Min blocked the boot’s strike with one hand and drove a Bone-Piercing Fist into the hunchbacked man’s shell, cracking it and stopping his charge.

Zhao Min killed a powerful attacker and fought off several cultivators, while Li Yan was struck unconscious but survived a blow to the head. As Zhao Min unleashed swarms of crossbow insects and gu insects, the gaunt old Daoist reached Li Yan first and tried to seal him for a soul search.

• Zhao Min killed the hunchbacked man with a barrage of punches and redirected his red-patterned boot, while An Die tried to shield her Demon Beast and was badly injured.
• A black-cloaked man and An Die kept Zhao Min occupied as Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist resumed attacking Li Yan.
• Wusitu struck Li Yan's head with his staff, but Li Yan's skull endured the blow; the gaunt old Daoist recognized their exceptional Body Refining Technique and ordered Wusitu to restrain him.
• Zhao Min drove back the black-cloaked man and An Die, then sent crossbow insects after An Die and her Demon Beast and gu insects after the black-cloaked man.
• As Li Yan fell toward the river unconscious, the gaunt old Daoist beat Wusitu to him and reached to seal him for a soul search.

Li Yan awakened from the corpse poison’s attack and killed the gaunt old Daoist before tearing off Wu Situ’s arms and sending him crashing into a mountain. As Zhao Min and Zi Kun confronted An Die, Li Yan pursued the fleeing black-cloaked man.

• Zhao Min burned her blood essence and charged the black-cloaked man while the gaunt old Daoist reached for Li Yan.
• Li Yan woke, poisoned the gaunt old Daoist with a mixture of toxins, and watched him swell and vanish in a cloud of multicolored smoke.
• Li Yan seized Wu Situ, tore off both his arms, and kicked him into a mountainside, leaving his fate unknown.
• The black-cloaked man fled after learning that Li Yan had killed the Heart-Inquiry Monastery master, abandoning An Die and his scattered black crows.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min to keep An Die surrounded, sent Zi Kun to attack her, and pursued the fleeing man while An Die begged for mercy.

Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun defeated An Die and her allies after a fierce battle, while Li Yan secretly poisoned the fleeing man in the black cloak. The chapter ended with Li Yan checking Zhao Min’s injuries and realizing she had been hurt far more badly than she admitted.

• Zi Kun’s presence suppressed An Die’s Demon Beast, and he attacked An Die with purple-flamed swords while Li Yan pursued the man in the black cloak.
• Li Yan used the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike to clash with the black-cloaked man’s purple-fire chain, coating it with deadly poisons before turning back.
• The poison spread through the black-cloaked man’s body and petrified his treasure as he desperately searched for a remedy.
• Zi Kun tore An Die’s thousand-legged Demon Beast in two, and An Die soon died from Zi Kun’s purple-flamed swords.
• Li Yan returned to Zhao Min, gave her pills, and examined her with spiritual power, discovering that her injuries were worse than she had claimed.