Chapter Summaries

Gong Chenying led the Phantom Sect cultivators along the desolate ancient road, where stepping into the desert triggered overwhelming swarms of black insects, red lizards, and stone-statue limbs. They reached another yellow sphere and began recovering their spiritual power as the silent black shadow drew dangerously close, leaving Li Yan and the other guards waiting for it to reach them.

• Gong Chenying stopped the group when black and red swarms and rising stone-statue limbs attacked, and they escaped onto the ancient road, where the threats could not advance.
• The cultivators counterattacked as they traveled, killing red lizards and black insects while spending roughly thirty percent of their spiritual power.
• Gong Chenying realized they might be able to rest outside a yellow sphere before the black shadow arrived, and the group reached the next sphere after opening about two li of distance from it.
• Gong Chenying assigned Li Yan and seven other cultivators to keep watch while the rest, including herself, recovered their spiritual power.
• The black shadow silently consumed the ancient road and a red lizard as it approached, while Li Yan sensed it through his Divine Sense and watched it close to within a few dozen paces.

Gong Chenying led the Wangliang Sect cultivators through the sphere’s entrance just before a black shadow reached them, where demon beasts immediately ambushed the group. She held off the attackers with a formation until reinforcements joined the fight, and the Wangliang Sect gained the upper hand.

• Li Yan warned Gong Chenying and the other cultivators that the approaching black shadow was close, and Gong Chenying led them into the yellow sphere.
• Gong Chenying blocked a late second-rank Earthspike Lizard’s ambush and used a formation to shield the cultivators as more of them arrived.
• Gong Chenying and the Earthspike Lizard each used a blue rhomboid crystal to strike the sphere overhead.
• Qi Busheng and Mi Yuanzhi unleashed swarms of gu insects, while the Wangliang Sect cultivators attacked with spirit beasts, insects, poisons, and miasmas.
• The Wangliang Sect cultivators overwhelmed many demon beasts, while Qi Busheng and Mi Yuanzhi looked down on Li Yan’s modest contribution.

Gong Chenying helped defeat the last Demon Beasts in the Wheel of Life and Death, while the Wangliang Sect cultivators outside worried over the disappearing paths. Inside another sphere, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing agreed to race for the right to lead their combined teams onward and set off through the wall.

• The remaining Demon Beasts fought desperately, and the second-rank Earthspike Lizard ambushed the Qi Condensation cultivators, killing one before Gong Chenying struck him down with her golden axe and halberd.
• Gong Chenying put away her golden axe and surveyed the defeated beasts and fallen cultivators.
• Outside the Wheel of Life and Death, Zhao Min and Li Wuyi worried as more paths vanished, while Hang Wu and other sect leaders discussed their alliance against the Wangliang Sect.
• Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing met inside a sphere and debated who would lead their teams through the next junction.
• Wang Lang proposed that they race to reach the junction first; after using their gourds to activate their crystals, both men opened a passage and rushed toward it.

After surviving the Demon Beast trial, Li Yan examined a blue diamond crystal and discovered that it forcibly drained his spiritual power. His Water Attribute cultivation unexpectedly drew power back from the crystal, including foreign spiritual power that threatened to throw his body into chaos.

• Gong Chenying gathered the fallen disciples’ remains and led the survivors out of the sphere to a lava-filled mountaintop.
• Li Yan recovered while standing guard and sensed a strange, sobbing sound beyond the cliff that nearly compelled him to jump.
• Li Yan examined his blue diamond crystal and accidentally triggered it to drain his spiritual power.
• When Li Yan gave up resisting, the black water in his Water Attribute spiritual-power vat formed a vortex that pulled power back from the crystal.
• Li Yan realized the returning spiritual power included foreign, impure energy that could cause his qi and blood to reverse and kill him.

Li Yan used the blue diamond crystal’s spiritual power to break through several stages of Qi Condensation, but the crystal collapsed before he learned its full purpose. He suspected that the other sects’ blue diamond crystals were tied to their plans against the Phantom Sect, though he still did not know how.

• Li Yan’s spiritual power filled its vessels, then poured into the other four vessels and became pure as he struggled to stop the blue diamond crystal’s suction.
• Li Yan circulated the Gui Water True Scripture and used the excess spiritual power to advance to the peak of the early stage of the tenth level of Qi Condensation.
• Li Yan examined the exhausted crystal with his Divine Sense, touched its black core, and watched the crystal collapse into smoke.
• Li Yan considered the crystal’s value and recalled that the Zen master had crushed one and said, “What a pity. We met too early.”
• Li Yan suspected the blue diamond crystals could help the other sects prepare to defeat the Phantom Sect, but could not determine their further use.

Li Yan asked Gong Chenying to preserve the blue diamond crystals so he could investigate their spiritual energy, while she led their group through the lava trial at a dangerous pace. With the black shadow closing in, Gong Chenying tested the yellow sphere and returned with news that her plan had worked, leaving the cultivators rushing inside.

• Li Yan told Gong Chenying about his suspicions concerning the blue diamond crystals and asked her to preserve any they found, while she noticed his increased cultivation.
• Gong Chenying led the group through the lava passage, where three more cultivators died to the lava monsters.
• Gong Chenying reached the yellow sphere ahead of their opponents and sent a dozen cultivators inside while the others waited outside.
• As the black shadow approached, Gong Chenying entered the sphere alone and instructed the group to prepare to fight if she did not return within two breaths.
• Gong Chenying emerged and announced that her plan had worked, then reentered the sphere as the cultivators hurried after her.

Li Yan and the Phantom Sect entered a sphere filled with corpses and found that Gong Chenying’s carefully prepared poison ambush had apparently killed the opposing cultivators. The bodies belonged to Ten-Step Academy and the Grand Profound Sect, and two dead cultivators still held blue diamond crystals, leaving the group bewildered.

• Gong Chenying chose to rush through the trial route and reach the sphere early so the Phantom Sect could ambush their rivals with poison.
• She led Laojun Peak and Four Symbols Peak cultivators into the sphere to lay concealed poisons and formations, while Li Yan and Mei Bucai made their own preparations.
• Gong Chenying kept Spirit Insect Peak and Buli Peak cultivators out of the sphere to avoid triggering its rules and planned a defensive formation for her group’s final entry.
• Li Yan and the others entered the sphere and saw more than fifty corpses wearing Ten-Step Academy and Grand Profound Sect robes.
• The group spotted two bodies seven steps apart, each still clutching a blue diamond crystal, and realized the scene was not the result they had expected.

Gong Chenying and Li Yan left the formation to investigate the poisoned battlefield, where two Foundation Establishment cultivators had died. Li Yan examined a Taixuan Sect cultivator’s corpse and took the blue diamond-shaped crystal from its hand, but its effect and the cause of the deaths remained unclear.

• Gong Chenying ordered everyone to remain inside the formation, then Li Yan volunteered to accompany her outside.
• Li Yan warned Gong Chenying about four poisoned areas as they hovered over the corpse-strewn battlefield.
• Mi Yuanzhi mocked Li Yan for entering without an antidote, while Qi Busheng and others discussed his apparent resistance to poison.
• Gong Chenying identified the nearer corpse as a Taixuan Sect Foundation Establishment cultivator who had suffered several poisons.
• Li Yan took the blue diamond-shaped crystal from the skeleton’s hand and examined the surrounding area without touching the cultivator’s other belongings.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying escaped the poisoned sphere after discovering the bodies of numerous enemy cultivators, while Li Yan secretly examined the corpses and collected Storage Pouches. The group entered a freezing mountain passage and prepared to press onward, knowing that two more stages remained and that one mistake could doom them.

• Gong Chenying handed Li Yan a blue rhombus crystal and collected the Storage Pouches of two dead Foundation Establishment cultivators while Li Yan inspected the bodies.
• The Phantom Sect cultivators mistook Li Yan’s immunity to the poisons for the effect of a spiritual pill, and Gong Chenying warned them to avoid four poisoned areas before leaving the sphere.
• Several cultivators were poisoned as they exited the formation, forcing the others to take antidotes and approach the contaminated air cautiously.
• Li Yan gathered twenty-three Storage Pouches from four areas, examined the corpses, and used a blue rhombus crystal before leaving the sphere.
• The group emerged into a snow-covered mountain passage, where Gong Chenying urged them to reach the ten-li mark and prepare an ambush before resting.
• After Hu Ziyi asked how many stages remained, Gong Chenying told the group that five stages lay ahead in total, leaving them discouraged.

Li Yan pieced together how the Foundation Establishment cultivators entered the sphere and argued that its rules allowed only one from each side inside at a time. Gong Chenying challenged his theory by asking what would happen to an enemy cultivator left outside after the platform sealed the entrance.

• Li Yan asked Gong Chenying for time to explain his discoveries, and she gave him a quarter of an hour.
• Li Yan recalled Chan Master Zhiwei's final words and proposed that the sphere's rules prevented two living Foundation Establishment cultivators from the same side from entering together.
• Li Yan identified the poisons that killed the Supreme Mystery Sect cultivator and explained how the bodies' wounds and positions suggested the cultivators had entered at different times.
• Li Yan reconstructed how the Ten-Step Academy sword cultivator rushed into the poisoned sphere, tried to escape, and died while attacking the rising platform.
• Gong Chenying questioned whether Li Yan's theory would have left an enemy cultivator trapped outside beneath the black shadow if the groups had entered in a different order.

Li Yan investigated the blue rhombus crystals and the sects’ methods for entering the yellow celestial sphere, using the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators’ Storage Pouches to search for clues. After finding three matching green gourds, he probed a blue rhombus crystal and entered a multicolored inner space, where a white sphere of light drew in his Divine Sense.

• Li Yan theorized that the blue rhombus crystals let cultivators enter the yellow celestial sphere and that the enemy groups might have merged from more than two routes.
• Gong Chenyin gave Li Yan one hour to investigate and handed him four Storage Pouches belonging to Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.
• Li Yan searched the pouches and found matching green gourds in the belongings of cultivators from the Pure Land Sect, the Grand Mystery Sect, and Ten-Step Academy.
• Li Yan cautiously examined the three green gourds, then brought out two blue rhombus crystals and investigated one with his Divine Sense.
• Li Yan's Divine Sense entered a multicolored space and approached its central white sphere of light, which eventually seized control of it.

Li Yan experimented with the blue rhombic crystals and the azure gourd, discovering how to make certain crystals merge and confirming that the crystals could drain spiritual power. He warned the others, but one cultivator ignored him and collapsed after secretly feeding a crystal spiritual power.

• Li Yan tested two blue rhombic crystals against each other, then used the azure gourd’s light to make them merge.
• Li Yan borrowed Gong Chenying’s purple-core crystal and found that it would not merge with the others until he treated it with the azure gourd.
• Li Yan returned Gong Chenying’s crystal and passed the other crystals to Hu Ziyi and the cultivators, warning them to use only Divine Sense.
• A Spirit Insect Peak cultivator secretly poured spiritual power into a crystal, which drained him until Gong Chenying’s cold snort stopped the others from intervening.
• The other cultivators examined the crystals without using spiritual power, while Li Yan concluded that only his Gui Water True Scripture could draw spiritual power back out of them.

Li Yan explained how the blue crystals, cyan gourds, and five-element spiritual energy let the three sects manipulate the Wheel of Life and Death’s rules. He left the group with a theory that the opposing sects used mixed-spirit-root Qi Condensation cultivators to conserve the gourds’ energy across trials.

• Hu Ziyi, Yu Yiyong, Mei Bucai, and the other cultivators described what they had sensed inside the blue crystals.
• Li Yan showed that the five-element regions inside the crystals were shifting and explained that the cyan gourds could temporarily balance them, allowing holders to become fellow travelers.
• Li Yan theorized that the first trial’s Buddhist master destroyed his crystal to conceal the secret, while the demon beasts in the second trial lacked cyan gourds and had not joined the plot.
• Li Yan warned that the balanced crystal spaces were rapidly depleting and would last no more than about thirty breaths without further energy.
• Li Yan revealed that the Qi Condensation cultivators he examined had mixed spirit roots and proposed that the three sects used such cultivators to avoid consuming the gourds’ five-element energy.

Li Yan deduced how the enemy might use five-element cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators to coordinate attacks inside the Wheel of Life and Death, though he could not resolve every uncertainty. As the hour ran short, Gong Chenying took charge of the blue crystals and green gourds, and Li Yan secretly told her he knew a way out of the passage.

• Li Yan explained why several cultivators could not reliably balance the five elements in a blue crystal, and the others abandoned the idea of using Qi Condensation cultivators for that task.
• Li Yan reasoned that the enemy's five-element cultivators could enter together and help opposing forces merge, while Gong Chenying raised the possibility that those forces might combine into three groups.
• Li Yan suggested that the blue crystals' differently colored cores could let Foundation Establishment cultivators communicate, and he speculated that the Wheel of Life and Death's rules prevented unlimited reinforcements.
• Gong Chenying decided that Li Yan's deductions were worth acting on despite her doubts, then demanded his blue crystals and green gourds.
• Li Yan sent Gong Chenying the five objects and privately told her that he had a way to leave the passage.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying decided to test whether a blue rhombus crystal could let someone escape the icy passage, and Gong Chenying sent Li Yan ahead while the others continued. Inside the crystal’s core, Li Yan found a strange world of gray lights and wondered whether the Five Immortals Sect had created it.

• Li Yan told Gong Chenying that a blue rhombus crystal might let one person leave a stage’s passage, and she asked him to test the possibility.
• Gong Chenying gave Li Yan a crystal and told him to return within ten breaths, then led the others onward while he stayed behind.
• Four items reached Li Yan through the snowstorm: three Ghost Chariot Talismans and a bottle of healing pills sent by Sixth Senior Sister.
• Gong Chenying confirmed that the crystals and gourds could disrupt the five-element balance inside a sphere, potentially changing the rules governing its cultivators.
• Li Yan entered the crystal’s azure core and found thirty-seven gray points of light that he could not touch.
• Li Yan reflected on the five-element connections in the secret realm and wondered whether members of the Five Immortals Sect had created it.

Li Yan studied the trial’s gates inside the blue diamond crystal and tried to escape by charging through the first one, but crashed into a snowy mountain wall. After realizing the crystal’s Five Elements space might hold the key, he passed through the wall and began considering how to use his Gui Water True Scripture to escape.

• Li Yan inferred that the ten archways marked distances along the trial path and that the first gate was near his position, then charged toward it.
• Li Yan struck a snowy mountain wall and was thrown backward, while Gong Chenying and the others saw him emerge from a snow pit and continued through the trial.
• Li Yan examined the first and second archways inside the crystal but found no response, and Gong Chenying grew concerned when he failed to catch up.
• Li Yan used the blue diamond crystal and his wood spiritual power to pass through the mountain wall, appearing in a colorful space beside three enormous bands of light.
• Li Yan realized that the surrounding Five Elements space might need to be reduced to a single attribute and considered using his Gui Water True Scripture to do so.

Li Yan discovered how to pass through the Life-and-Death Wheel by converting the blue diamond crystal’s Five Elements energy to match its core, and found he could travel freely through the space beyond the passage. He used that ability to warn Gong Chenying of an approaching threat, then departed to reach the others.

• Li Yan converted the blue diamond crystal’s energy into wood spiritual power, matched his own energy to it, and broke through into the multicolored space beyond the passage.
• Li Yan concluded that the secret realm was likely connected to the Five Immortal Sects and discovered he could replenish the crystal’s energy with his own spiritual power.
• Li Yan considered cultivating in the space but chose to search for his companions, then realized he could fly through it at great speed.
• Gong Chenying continued leading the group after Li Yan vanished, until he reappeared briefly and warned her that Ten-Step Academy or demon beasts might arrive in about half an hour.
• Li Yan confirmed he could enter and leave the passage by matching the crystal’s energy to its core, warned Gong Chenying, and quickly escaped the passage’s approaching attack.

Li Yan discovered that the Wheel of Life and Death’s voice could stir murderous intent in him, then used his blue diamond crystal to locate and enter a passage occupied by demon beasts. He secretly released bee gu before escaping, leaving Potian and his battered team to face the trial’s red monsters.

• An aged voice recognized Li Yan’s Gui Water Immortal Sect aura and urged him to kill those with five-element spiritual roots, but his Gui Water energy restored his clarity.
• Li Yan confirmed that his blue diamond crystal displayed the map of whichever passage ribbon lay closest to it, then located a demon-beast team in the yellow ribbon.
• Li Yan entered the passage through the seventh doorway, released a dozen-odd bee gu, and vanished before the team could notice him.
• Potian led six longhorn beetles and four Sacred Light Moths through the crimson-walled passage after losing a strand of natal spiritual radiance and many companions in the previous trial.
• Potian warned his team to be cautious near the ten-li mark and sent black radiance through the mist as red monsters continued attacking them.

Li Yan used bee gu to trigger the passage’s dormant restrictions early, forcing Potian’s demon beasts into a far more dangerous assault. Meanwhile, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing struggled to lead their dwindling forces across a chain bridge, and Wang Lang argued that he deserved the next chance to enter a trial sphere.

• Potian cleared a path through the red mist with his innate divine ability, but a dense swarm of red monsters attacked from ahead.
• Li Yan explained that his bee gu had triggered the passage’s restrictions all at once, then hurried toward the white band of light.
• Wang Lang fought black eagles above the chain bridge while Quan Jiuxing defended their cultivators from golden snakes leaping out of the corrosive river.
• Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing noted that their combined force had fallen from forty-nine to forty-three after advancing only four miles.
• Wang Lang complained that they had repeatedly encountered demon-beast teams and asked Quan Jiuxing to let him enter the next sphere first.

Li Yan hid inside the Light Gate’s membrane and used his Divine Sense to observe Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing as they fought through the passage. Quan Jiuxing revealed the dangers and limits of entering the Wheel of Life and Death’s yellow sphere, while Li Yan prepared to seek a better position before his talisman failed.

• Li Yan used the blue diamond-shaped crystal to linger inside the Light Gate’s membrane and sent a strand of Divine Sense into the passage to watch the cultivators.
• Li Yan recognized Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing working together and decided to move before his Ghost Chariot Talisman collapsed.
• Quan Jiuxing proposed that the two sects race to the ten-li mark, but Wang Lang questioned how their Qi Condensation cultivators could recover and enter the yellow sphere safely.
• Quan Jiuxing explained how a Golden Core senior discovered the blue crystal’s five-element space and the rules governing entry into an occupied sphere.
• Quan Jiuxing warned Wang Lang that having three high-level cultivators enter the sphere together could trigger a deadly attack, as he and Wang Lang continued fighting their way forward.