Chapter Summaries

Gong Chenying found the unconscious Sixth Elder in the cave and learned that Gong Shanhe was not there, while Li Yan and Gong Shanhe confronted three Wind Beast avatars outside. As Gong Shanhe fought one opponent and Li Yan engaged the other two, the enemies sent seductive phantoms to overwhelm Li Yan’s Confucian treasures.

• The delicate-featured nun told Gong Chenying that the Sixth Elder was in the cave, his vital blood drained by a Wind Beast, and that Gong Shanhe was not there.
• Gong Chenying gave the unconscious Sixth Elder vital-blood-replenishing pills, placed him in her spirit storage pouch, and left him an explanatory jade slip.
• Li Yan and Gong Shanhe left the cave and encountered three identical men in blood-dripping champion’s robes, then agreed that Gong Shanhe would attack one while Li Yan held off two.
• Gong Shanhe struck his opponent with a powerful wind blade, while Li Yan used Qi Jinghong’s brush and inkstone to burn and repel the ghosts released by his two foes.
• The two foes sent out seven seductive women whose pink mist strengthened the ghosts, weakening the brush’s flames as the phantoms advanced toward Li Yan.

Li Yan used the Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes and his Soul-Pulling Guided Kill technique to kill one blood-dripping top graduate in red robes and disrupt the other’s attack. He faced the surviving opponent as the black mist thinned and his Divine Sense suppression weakened.

• The blood-dripping top graduate in red robes sent blood-red hats to suppress Li Yan’s inkstone while naked apparitions closed in on him.
• Li Yan secretly used the Gui Water True Scripture to trace golden figures of both opponents inside his sleeves and inscribe Black Water Runes.
• Li Yan’s rune struck the opponent controlling the naked apparitions, tore out his Life Soul, and caused his cultivation to collapse.
• Li Yan pinned the weakened man’s Primordial Spirit with one Guiyi Water-Parting Spike and pulled out and annihilated his remaining souls and spirits with the other.
• The second blood-dripping top graduate in red robes shattered Li Yan’s rune, forcing him to halt his attack as the man raised a flute and Li Yan recalled his damaged magic treasures.

Li Yan and Gong Shanhe fought their way toward escape after Li Yan killed one crimson-robed scholar, while Gong Chenying learned that they were nearby and prepared to leave the cave with the delicate nun. Just as Li Yan and Gong Shanhe began resisting the sinister wind, one scholar merged with the other, greatly increasing his power and intensifying the wind.

• Li Yan killed one crimson-robed scholar with his soul technique, leaving him and Gong Shanhe facing two opponents against two.
• The delicate nun described the fighters beyond the cave, and Gong Chenying recognized Li Yan and her father; the nun placed a restriction on Gong Chenying and set out with her to join them.
• The crimson-robed scholars played their flutes, summoning the cave's sinister wind and freezing Li Yan and Gong Shanhe as they tried to escape.
• Li Yan used his Five Elements cultivation method to resist the wind, while Gong Shanhe advanced by striking cracks into it with his punches.
• One crimson-robed scholar shrank and entered the other's dantian, boosting the survivor's aura and strengthening the sinister wind's tearing force.

Li Yan struggled against the red-robed man's sinister wind while trying to keep Gong Shanhe from being dragged into the cave. Gong Chenying and a Buddhist nun intervened, injuring the red-robed man's avatar and giving the group a chance to escape as the cave's main body stirred.

• Li Yan resisted the red-robed man's intensifying sinister wind by unleashing more of his strength, while Gong Shanhe was pulled toward the cave entrance.
• Li Yan attacked the red-robed man with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, but a Buddhist nun and Gong Chenying appeared and struck him with a spear and a golden Buddha finger.
• The wounded red-robed man screamed as the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike pierced his shoulder, and a deep roar from the cave shattered the wind columns.
• The Buddhist nun warned Li Yan and Gong Shanhe to flee because the red-robed man's main body had suffered a backlash but remained too powerful to face.
• Gong Chenying urged her father and Li Yan to leave, and Li Yan stored her and the nun in his spirit storage pouch.

Li Yan and Gong Shanhe escaped the black swamp with Gong Chenying and Hong Yin, a soul who had sealed Gong Chenying as part of a transaction. Hong Yin asked about Red Whisk Temple and learned that it had stood in the swamp before vanishing, while Li Yan and Gong Shanhe quietly considered how to free Gong Chenying without fighting her.

• Li Yan and Gong Shanhe escaped the swamp after enduring several days of attacks from controlled wind pillars.
• Li Yan brought Hong Yin and Gong Chenying out of Tuban, and Gong Shanhe reunited with his daughter.
• Hong Yin revealed that she had sealed Gong Chenying as part of a transaction and offered to remove the seal after asking about the Wind God Continent.
• Hong Yin asked whether Gong Shanhe or Li Yan knew of Red Whisk Temple, and Gong Shanhe recalled that the temple had once stood in the swamp as a ruin.
• Gong Shanhe told Hong Yin how the Tianli Clan's first High Priest found Red Whisk Temple and how its buildings later disappeared beneath the swamp.
• Li Yan and Gong Shanhe secretly agreed that Hong Yin might be connected to the temple and decided to avoid fighting her while seeking a way to rescue Gong Chenying.

Hong Yin questioned Li Yan and Gong Shanhe about the red-glowing spearhead and the Flame Palace in the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower. Unable to safely travel alone as a soul, she agreed to visit the Tianli Clan with Gong Chenying for three days before deciding whether to stay, while leaving Chenying sealed until she departed.

• Hong Yin asked where the spearhead came from, and Li Yan said he had found it in the Flame Palace beneath Red Maple Pool on the Desolate Moon Continent.
• Hong Yin questioned Li Yan about the Flame Palace, its monsters, and the eighteen pillars carved with Demon Beasts, then asked about the Wind God Continent.
• Gong Shanhe proposed that Hong Yin visit the Tianli Clan, where she could study its records and receive soul-nourishing pills while seeking a suitable body.
• Hong Yin agreed to visit the clan with Gong Chenying for three days, during which she would be free to explore outside its core areas, and promised to remove Chenying's seal when she left.
• Gong Shanhe asked Gong Chenying to bring out the Sixth Elder so they could check his condition.

Gong Shanhe confirmed that the Sixth Elder had been rescued, and Hong Yin revealed her past as a mid-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator who sealed a powerful Yin Mountain Beast beneath the swamp. She warned that the beast could awaken within ten to twenty years, leaving Gong Shanhe to consider the Tianli Clan’s options as Gong Chenying clarified her relationship with Li Yan.

• Hong Yin briefly restored Gong Chenying’s divine sense, allowing her to release the Sixth Elder from her spirit storage bag; Gong Shanhe greeted him, and Li Yan supplied recovery pills before the Sixth Elder returned to rest.
• Hong Yin identified the Wind Beasts as Yin Mountain Beasts and revealed that their sealed mid-fifth-tier leader could awaken within ten to twenty years.
• Hong Yin recounted how she had been a mid-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator and supreme elder of Red Whisk Temple, which she sacrificed to seal the beast after years of fighting drained the temple’s forces.
• Gong Shanhe recognized that the awakening could threaten the Tianli Clan and said he would consult the Great Elder about what to do, including the possibility of relocating.
• Gong Chenying told Gong Shanhe that Li Yan was her junior brother from the same sect, prompting Hong Yin to reconsider their unusual senior-and-junior relationship.

Li Yan brought Gong Shanhe and the Sixth Elder back to the Tianli Clan, where the elders and warriors celebrated their return while Yan San and the Wind Beasts reacted with hatred. The chapter then shifted to the North Ice Continent, where an unknown yellow-robed Daoist faced a storm of icicles.

• Gong Chenying told Gong Shanhe that Li Yan was the Qing'a King, and Gong Shanhe realized Li Yan was his daughter's Dao Companion and cultivated the Qiongqi Purgatory Art.
• Hong Yin allowed Gong Chenying to speak privately with Gong Shanhe and warned that breaking her seal could damage her mind.
• Gong Shanhe learned about Li Yan's deeds for the Tianli Clan, thanked him, and began speaking with him more openly.
• A month later, Li Yan's party reached the Tianli Clan, and Gong Shanhe and the Sixth Elder rejoiced at their return.
• Yan San and several fourth-rank Wind Beasts confronted the returning group as the Tianli Clan's elders and warriors welcomed Gong Shanhe and the Sixth Elder.
• On the North Ice Continent, a yellow-robed Daoist repelled a barrage of icicles, which shattered nearby ice peaks and raised enormous waves.

True Lord Qianzhong searched for a way out of a five-element-severing formation while his enemy waited for him to run out of resources. Meanwhile, Dong Fuyi tracked a white-robed young man to Crossing Dragon Ridge and confronted him outside his hidden cave.

• True Lord Qianzhong taunted the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect's leader, then weighed three possible formation cores and the risk of choosing the wrong one.
• The purple-haired giant watched True Lord Qianzhong through a stone-wall image and vowed to outlast him.
• Dong Fuyi cursed the false rumors that had brought him to the Northern Ice Continent and recalled hearing about a white-robed young man who wielded four attributes.
• Dong Fuyi searched the witnesses' souls, followed the young man's traces to Crossing Dragon Ridge, and found his concealed cave.
• The white-robed young man emerged after Dong Fuyi aimed a finger at the cave wall, and Dong Fuyi said he wanted to test his strength.

Dong Fuyi defeated Pei Buchong in a brief clash, recognized him as a disciple of the Ji Earth Immortal Sect, and learned that his master, Qian Zhong, had gone missing while searching for Pangu Sand. Dong Fuyi concluded that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect had planted clues and bait to lure members of the Five Immortal Sects into deadly traps.

• Dong Fuyi broke through Pei Buchong’s golden armor and restrained him, then stopped before injuring him and asked where he had learned the Qilin Golden Armor.
• Pei Buchong identified his master as True Lord Qianzhong, demonstrated his cultivation art, and confirmed Dong Fuyi’s identity before introducing himself as Pei Buchong.
• Pei Buchong told Dong Fuyi that Qian Zhong had been missing for years and that he had tracked clues across realms to the Northern Ice Continent.
• Pei Buchong recounted evidence that Qian Zhong had visited the Northern Ice Continent while seeking Pangu Sand, then vanished there.
• Dong Fuyi revealed that he had also been lured by tempting information and nearly died in a red lightning tribulation, and he suspected someone was targeting the Five Immortal Sects.
• Dong Fuyi concluded that the Five Immortal Sects’ enemy, the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, was behind the traps and planted clues.

Gong Shanhe returned to the Tianli Clan with news that a sleeping fifth-order wind beast threatened the region, prompting the elders to consider retreat while Li Yan watched over Gong Chen Ying and Hong Yin. Hong Yin removed Gong Chen Ying’s Divine Sense seal and began discussing Gong Shanhe’s offer to become a guest elder in exchange for help finding a physical body.

• Yan San and the other wind beasts retreated after seeing that Li Yan and Gong Shanhe were still ready to fight, and the Tianli Clan celebrated their leaders’ return.
• Gong Shanhe told the elders that a fifth-order wind beast slept beneath the swamp and that Yan San had hoped to use the threat to crush the Tianli Clan and advance to the fifth order.
• The Tianli elders discussed the danger and began considering evacuation sites, while Li Yan monitored Hong Yin as she studied the clan’s records with Gong Chen Ying.
• Hong Yin summoned Li Yan and Gong Shanhe to the archive, where Gong Chen Ying revealed that her Divine Sense seal had been removed.
• Hong Yin confirmed that she believed the Tianli Clan’s account and asked whether Gong Shanhe still wanted her to become a guest elder in exchange for help finding her a physical body.

Hongyin agreed to become Gong Chenying’s master, while the Tianli Clan prepared for a possible relocation to escape a fifth-tier wind beast. Li Yan received the fourth and fifth layers of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art and began cultivating them, where the chapter ended with impurities emerging from his body.

• Gong Shanhe agreed to help Hongyin find a Nascent Soul realm body within a hundred years, and Hongyin announced that she would remain with the Tianli Clan to teach Gong Chenying.
• Gong Chenying accepted Hongyin as her master, and Hongyin examined her unusual Three Talents Spirit Roots before beginning her instruction.
• Gong Shanhe gave Li Yan a jade slip containing the fourth and fifth layers of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art and confirmed that the clan had begun preparing to relocate within five to ten years.
• Li Yan returned to his cultivation room and studied the jade slip, then practiced a demanding posture for seven days.
• Li Yan’s muscles began rippling as grayish-white impurities seeped from his pores during his cultivation.

Li Yan broke through to the fourth layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, then joined the Tianli Clan elders and Nun Hongyin to discuss how to deal with the dormant fifth-tier Yinshan Beast beneath the swamp. Hongyin explained the beast’s weaknesses and the methods that might delay its awakening, leaving the clan to consider its limited options.

• Li Yan broke through to the fourth layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, slightly loosened his middle Nascent Soul bottleneck, and found that his speed and physical strength had improved.
• After more than twenty days of cultivation, Li Yan received the Grand Elder’s summons and went to Tianli Hall, where he found Hongyin and several clan elders waiting.
• Hongyin told Li Yan that Gong Chenying was studying the cultivation technique she had imparted and could not attend; Li Yan privately resolved to settle his grievance with the gloomy Fifth Elder.
• The Grand Elder explained that he had summoned Li Yan and Hongyin to seek advice about the Yinshan Beast beneath the swamp, while the Fifth Elder tried to frame Li Yan’s help as an obligation to the clan.
• Hongyin said the clan could not directly suppress the Yinshan Beast with its current strength, but more than four Nascent Soul Buddhist or Confucian cultivators might delay its awakening, and pure-yang witchcraft could also restrain it.

The Tianli Clan’s elders discussed how to face the fifth-grade Yinshan Beast and asked Li Yan to renew the poison defenses as their barrier failed. Li Yan agreed to supply enough poison for three months and negotiated to earn the sixth layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art by defending the clan for five years.

• The Tianli Clan’s elders considered their magic treasure and other options, while Li Yan noted that the Yinshan Beast’s damaged avatars might slow its true body.
• The elders questioned Hong Yin about the sealed beast, and she explained that it had been nourished by Heavenly Eye Wind while her own power had dwindled.
• The First Elder asked Li Yan to address the failing defenses, and Li Yan offered to refine poison for another three months once the clan supplied materials.
• Li Yan told the elders that further help would need to count as a contribution toward receiving more cultivation techniques, prompting a dispute over the clan’s terms.
• After an hour of negotiation, Li Yan agreed to defend the Tianli Clan for five years in exchange for the sixth layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, but the elders refused to offer its seventh and eighth layers.

Li Yan asked Hong Yin to assess his Buddhist prayer beads and learned how to activate the thought power within them in exchange for an unspecified future favor. He then asked whether four Vajrapani Bodhisattva images might be enough to suppress the fifth-tier Yin Mountain Beast, leaving Hong Yin to consider the possibility.

• Hong Yin told Li Yan that the Tianli Clan was seeking a physical body for her and agreed to visit his residence to hear his questions.
• Li Yan showed Hong Yin the Secret Trace Vajra Suppresses Mountains, and she judged that its single Vajrapani Bodhisattva image was far too weak to suppress the fifth-tier Yin Mountain Beast.
• Hong Yin agreed to teach Li Yan how to activate the magic treasure's thought power in exchange for a future favor within limits she specified, then gave him a jade slip with the method.
• Li Yan asked whether four Vajrapani Bodhisattva images could suppress the Yin Mountain Beast, recalling that Venerable Bright Tuo had refined four before ascending.
• Li Yan reasoned that the beast might still be weakened and that suppressing it longer could buy the Tianli Clan precious time.

Li Yan discussed strengthening the Buddhist beads with Hong Yin, but learned that refining more Vajrapani Bodhisattva manifestations required Buddhist knowledge and mind power she could not safely provide. He planned to involve Zhuo Lingfeng in a larger scheme to seal the fifth-tier Yin Mountain Beast, while Gong Chenying broke through into the false-core realm and began manifesting a demonic beast.

• Li Yan showed Hong Yin a Sinking True Dragon skull, and she confirmed its bone could be used to refine a Vajrapani Bodhisattva manifestation.
• Hong Yin warned that refining the Buddhist beads would disrupt their balanced mind power and could destroy the treasure, then refused to help because doing so might consume her soul.
• Li Yan apologized and decided to seek Zhuo Lingfeng's help, hoping to refine at least four Esoteric Vajra Mountain Suppression treasures and ultimately seal the Yin Mountain Beast completely.
• Hong Yin reflected on her plans for Gong Chenying, Red Whisk Temple's inheritance, and her intended journey to the Desolate Moon Continent.
• Gong Chenying's cultivation surged into the false-core realm, and an enormous phantom of a demonic beast appeared above her.

Gong Chenying stabilized her surging cultivation at the peak of the Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm, while Li Yan arranged poison materials and learned that Qianji had been troubled since their time in the swamp. After Qianji described sensing emotions in the black mist, Li Yan stood silently by the pavilion window.

• Gong Chenying's aura surged toward the Nascent Soul Realm as she cultivated the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture, but she suppressed it and stabilized at the peak of the Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm.
• Hong Yin watched Gong Chenying's cultivation settle and then left the chamber.
• Li Yan asked the Great Elder to prepare poison-pill and toxic-liquid materials for the defenses and said he would leave the Tianli Clan for a while.
• Zi Kun told Li Yan that Qianji had grown quiet and withdrawn since returning from the swamp.
• Li Yan questioned Qianji, who said he had sensed emotions in the black mist around the underground cave and later felt something surface in his mind.

Li Yan finished reinforcing the Tianli Clan’s defensive line and prepared to leave on a secret mission, confiding its startling purpose to Gong Chenying. Before departing, he offered her two drops of Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood, but she refused because she believed they were more important for his cultivation.

• Yan San threatened to destroy the Tianli Clan, but he still hoped to reach the fifth order and hesitated to detonate Sky Eye Pit.
• Li Yan spent more than three months reinforcing the front line, laying extensive poison and restrictions before returning to the clan.
• Li Yan congratulated Gong Chenying on reaching the peak of the False Nascent Soul realm and encouraged her to seek insight for her breakthrough.
• Li Yan secretly told Gong Chenying about his plans involving the seal and asked her to keep them confidential; she was shocked by what he intended to attempt.
• Gong Chenying kissed Li Yan and said she would ask her father about King Qing'a once the clan was more stable.
• Li Yan offered Gong Chenying two drops of Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood, but she refused, arguing that they were Li Yan’s best chance to strengthen his body.

Li Yan left the Tianli Clan and traveled to Shaman Temple to meet Zhuo Lingfeng, keeping the two demons and Snow Mosquitoes behind to protect Gong Chenying. After arriving, he asked Zhuo Lingfeng for help, leaving the nature of his request unresolved.

• Gong Chenying refused Li Yan's attempt to give her the essence blood and advised him to refine it to strengthen himself, while Li Yan chose to save the drops for her.
• Li Yan departed the Tianli Clan in secret, and the Great Elder and Third Elder warned him not to stay away too long; he left two demons and Snow Mosquitoes to guard Gong Chenying.
• Li Yan traveled south to Shaman Temple, avoiding others and killing several groups of wind beasts along the way.
• At Shaman Temple, Li Yan asked the guest-receiving monk to notify Chan Master Xuwu that an old friend surnamed Li had come to visit.
• Li Yan met Zhuo Lingfeng, who congratulated him on the Tianli Clan's reprieve from the wind beasts, and Li Yan said he had come to ask for help.

Li Yan asked Zhuo Lingfeng and Divine Monk Konghai to deduce how to upgrade his Buddhist prayer-bead treasure, offering Sandstar King Stones in return. After a year of research, they had made only partial progress, while a separate scene on the Northern Ice Continent ended with a young man asking whether a series of lured targets were connected.

• Li Yan showed Zhuo Lingfeng the prayer beads and refinement technique, and Zhuo Lingfeng judged that he and Divine Monk Konghai had a twenty-to-thirty-percent chance of deducing the method.
• Li Yan offered Zhuo Lingfeng four Sandstar King Stones, and Zhuo Lingfeng agreed to ask his master to help refine the treasure.
• Li Yan stayed at Shamen Temple to cultivate while Zhuo Lingfeng and Divine Monk Konghai studied the prayer beads and technique.
• After more than a year, Zhuo Lingfeng told Li Yan that they had made only slight progress and asked to involve the temple’s other two divine monks; Li Yan agreed.
• On the Northern Ice Continent, a gray-robed elder melted a burly man into black water, and a young man in white asked whether the seventeenth person he had lured out was connected to the others.