Chapter Summaries

Master Wei rushed toward the thousand-zhang checkpoint, planning to use his remaining secret resources to kill its guardian before pursuing demon beasts surrounded him. Meanwhile, Li Yan used the Fuxi Disc to divert the sea of fire as he climbed, unknowingly disturbing demon beasts throughout the Blood Tuo Lamp.

• Master Wei encountered a fiery rhinoceros at nine hundred and thirty zhang and accelerated toward the final checkpoint, enduring attacks as demon beasts pursued him.
• Master Wei planned to unleash his extraordinary flame and secret technique to kill the checkpoint's great demon before he was surrounded.
• Li Yan used the Fuxi Disc's solitary yang power to drive flames and their heads away from him, then controlled its effect to avoid attracting attention.
• Li Yan climbed past the three-hundred-zhang checkpoint while Wu Gouzi believed he was merely diverting the fire at the cost of accumulating pill toxins.
• A Chunyang Hall cultivator noticed the southern demon beasts growing restless, and the other cultivators reported similar disturbances around the sea of fire.

Master Wei attempted to clear the Blood Tuo Lamp trial with a single prepared strike, but the crocodile-like great demon survived the blow. The flames obscured the battle, leaving the plaza cultivators convinced that the Mingyan Sect was close to success.

• The four cultivators balancing the Blood Tuo Lamp watched Master Wei race toward the thousand-zhang mark while drawing three pursuing Demon Beasts into a frenzy.
• Master Wei reached the checkpoint and faced a crocodile-like great demon as the three Demon Beasts closed in behind him.
• An unseen aura stirred the sea of fire and frightened its Demon Beasts just as Master Wei launched his prepared attack.
• White flames briefly restrained the crocodile-like Demon Beast, and Master Wei's flaming giant sword struck its head but lodged after cutting only several inches.
• The wounded great demon roared and flared with anger while flames swallowed the scene, and plaza cultivators praised the Mingyan Sect and mocked the Pojun Sect.

Scholar Wei failed the Blood Tuo Lamp trial after his final strike was stopped by the guarding Demon Beast, though he escaped unharmed at first and explained his method to the Bright Flame Sect. The sect sent Elder Yu to attempt the trial next, while Li Yan continued ascending inside the lamp.

• Scholar Wei’s flaming sword failed to kill the guarding Demon Beast, so he used an escape talisman and emerged from the lamp’s base.
• Scholar Wei returned to the Bright Flame Sect, where his secret technique’s backlash weakened him as he explained how four late-stage fifth-order Demon Beasts had overwhelmed his final attack.
• Scholar Wei learned that Shangguan Tianque had failed and that Li Yan had reached the six-hundred-zhang mark.
• Scholar Wei chose Elder Yu to try the trial, reasoning that her fire and wood spiritual roots and higher cultivation gave her a better chance.
• Elder Yu received an object from Wu Gouzi and flew toward the Blood Tuo Lamp, confirming that Scholar Wei had failed.

Li Yan used the Fuxi Disc to withstand the Blood Tuo Lamp while disguising his strength, and Elder Yu entered the trial only to find its attacks far harsher than Master Wei had described. As Elder Yu struggled upward, Li Yan passed seven hundred zhang.

• Ren Yanyu watched Master Wei return without passing the trial and worried that both sects might fail to advance.
• Li Yan used the Fuxi Disc’s lone yang power to repel the sea of fire while pretending to struggle and fighting each checkpoint guardian.
• Elder Yu entered the lampshade and found the attacks already terrifying, forcing him to spend about thirty percent of his strength to part the flames.
• Mingyan Sect’s observers questioned Elder Yu’s slow progress, while Wu Gouzi privately wondered why the trial seemed so difficult for him.
• Elder Yu suspected someone had increased the trial’s difficulty but continued following Master Wei’s advice as Li Yan ascended past seven hundred zhang.

Li Yan fought his way through the Blood Tu Lamp’s trials and reached the final hundred zhang, where he used a risky method to bypass several Demon Beasts at once. He struck at the crocodile-like beast as the other three converged beneath him.

• Li Yan defeated the twin-winged crimson flame tiger through agile close combat and advanced past eight hundred zhang, while Elder Yu lagged far behind.
• Li Yan reached nine hundred zhang, badly injured and exhausted, as Shangguan Tianque, Ren Yanyu, and Mu Guyue watched with growing confidence in him.
• Li Yan reasoned that he could not keep fighting each new opponent head-on, then accelerated past the fire-wreathed rhinoceros, golden crow, and crimson flood dragon.
• Li Yan reached one thousand zhang just as a crocodile-like Demon Beast appeared, with the three pursuing beasts closing in beneath him.
• Li Yan positioned himself above the crocodile-like Demon Beast, unleashed yang flames, and attacked before the four beasts could react.

Li Yan cleared the Blood Tuo Lamp trial by destroying a crocodile-shaped Demon Beast and escaping past the barrier, despite losing both arms and suffering severe burns. The Pojun Sect celebrated as its successful trial raised its rank to third-rate, while the Bright Flame Sect remained fourth-rate.

• Li Yan used the crocodile-shaped Demon Beast's brief disorientation to plunge his arms into its eyes, then crushed its head while enduring the golden lava that dissolved his arms and burned his body.
• Li Yan used the force from the invisible membrane to propel himself above the Blood Tuo Lamp, narrowly evading attacks from the crimson flood dragon, wild rhinoceros, and golden crow.
• A voice announced that the Pojun Sect had cleared the trial, and Li Yan flew back to his sect while his injuries healed beneath fresh robes.
• Han Zhumei and the Bright Flame Sect cultivators recognized Li Yan's strength as the Pojun Sect members celebrated their success.
• Chongyangzi approved of Li Yan's performance, while Elder Fang and Elder Zhou praised his decisiveness and ruthlessness.

Li Yan cleared the Blood Tuo Lamp trial for the Pojun Sect, while Elder Yu failed and the Mingyan Sect reconsidered its approach. Han Zhumei then cleared the trial as well, leaving the Mingyan Sect qualified alongside the Pojun Sect.

• The Seven Tigers Alliance leader recognized Li Yan's success and considered courting the Pojun Sect to counter the Blood Lamp Sect and irritate Wu Gouzi.
• Elder Yu emerged from the Blood Tuo Lamp injured after a sudden surge of flame beasts overwhelmed him, and he learned that Li Yan had cleared the trial.
• Master Wei concluded that the Mingyan Sect could not question Wu Gouzi about the trial and told Han Zhumei to attempt it using her own strategy.
• Shangguan Tianque, Yu Banjiang, and the Guest Elders thanked Li Yan, while Ren Yanyu joked that his success had been nothing but luck.
• Han Zhumei used her wind-based movement to evade most attacks, defeated the checkpoint beasts, and cleared the trial within a little over half an hour.

Chunyang Hall introduced the second trial, a simulated battle inside a Mountains and Rivers Painting, where the Pojun Sect and Mingyan Sect would test their overall combat abilities for a reward. The trial was about to begin, with each sect given five days to eliminate every opponent while their true bodies remained outside.

• Chongyangzi announced that the winning sect would receive two great fruitless fruits and one hundred supreme-grade spirit stones.
• Elder Fang opened a Mountains and Rivers Painting and explained that cultivators would fight as mark avatars wielding roughly seventy percent of their true strength.
• Elder Fang excluded Master Wei, Elder Yu, and Shangguan Tianque from the trial because they had failed to break through in the first trial.
• Elder Fang sent marks to the qualified cultivators, and Li Yan sensed a connection to a Light Gate within his sea of consciousness.
• Elder Fang set the rules: the sects would scout their respective halves for an hour, then fight through dense mist for up to five days, and a draw would divide the rewards equally.

Elder Fang explained the Mountains and Rivers Painting trial’s casualty tracking and imprint-avatar rules, then sent both sects inside to scout before combat began. Li Yan entered with Mu Guyue and Ren Yanyu, discovered the imprint body sharply limited his abilities, and set out to survey the terrain.

• Master Wei asked how the sects would track deaths, and Elder Fang explained that tokens would display each side’s remaining cultivators as colored dots.
• Li Yan asked whether body cultivators could use their abilities, and Elder Fang confirmed the imprints preserved seventy percent of their strength, including special cultivation methods.
• Elder Fang gave the cultivators an hour to scout, and the Pojun Sect members connected to their imprints and entered the Mountains and Rivers Painting.
• Li Yan, Mu Guyue, and Ren Yanyu appeared in a flower-filled valley, checked their tokens, and surveyed the surrounding mountains and rivers.
• Mu Guyue organized spell tests and scouting teams, then Li Yan learned that his imprint body lacked soul arts, Zhili Poison, and his external incarnation, leaving his overall strength reduced by more than half.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue adapted the Po Jun Sect’s strategy to the Mountain and River Diagram’s dense fog, then prepared an ambush while Li Yan set out alone to hunt the Mingyan Sect’s high-level cultivators. The chapter ended with Han Zhumei mapping the terrain as Li Yan disappeared into the mist.

• Li Yan reconsidered his combat methods because the marked incarnations made many of his Gui Water Immortal Sect techniques too risky to reveal.
• Mu Guyue tested how the fog disrupted Divine Sense, gathered range reports, and ordered the Po Jun Sect cultivators to regroup at a prepared defensive position.
• Mu Guyue organized an ambush within one hundred and fifty li and assigned Ren Yanyu to control the grand formation.
• Li Yan insisted on searching alone for the Mingyan Sect’s defensive point and Spirit Transformation cultivators, despite Ren Yanyu warning that he could be surrounded.
• Li Yan entered the fog while Han Zhumei marked locations on a map of the Mountain and River Diagram.

Han Zhumei organized the Bright Flame Sect’s search for the Breaker Army Sect while planning to infiltrate alone and target its Spirit Transformation cultivators. Li Yan slipped through the fog toward enemy territory, but his hunter’s instincts warned him that someone was nearby, and he began searching as Han Zhumei watched from concealment.

• Han Zhumei assigned rewards for the battle and ordered the three elders to search together, regrouping before attacking any enemy they found.
• Han Zhumei explained that she would scout alone while the three teams swept the forest in expanding and contracting rings.
• Li Yan entered the fog and moved directly toward the Breaker Army Sect’s territory, passing the enemy’s search route without encountering anyone.
• Li Yan recalled hunting in Great Green Mountain as he moved invisibly past wild animals in the forest.
• Li Yan sensed that the balance around him had changed, concealed himself more thoroughly, and searched for the source.
• Han Zhumei stood transparently on a thin branch nearby, hidden among the fog, vines, and leaves.

Li Yan and Han Zhumei each sensed a hidden opponent in the fog and tried to draw the other into revealing their position. Their exchange of attacks left both exposed, but neither appeared to be seriously hurt as Han Zhumei’s thrown black mass tore through the forest.

• Han Zhumei sensed an unseen presence and used her Moonlit Breeze technique to search the fog, while Li Yan concluded that she was nearby and intended to ambush her.
• Han Zhumei detected a patch of mist moving against the wind and sent a massive wind blade toward it.
• Li Yan leaked his aura to provoke Han Zhumei into attacking, then dodged her wind blade and threw a streak of black light toward the tree where he sensed her.
• Han Zhumei evaded Li Yan’s attack by drifting aside, and the black mass blasted through trees and branches as it continued into the forest.

Li Yan and Han Zhumei clashed in the mist, then resumed searching for each other while concealed. Han Zhumei spotted signs that Li Yan’s concealment technique might develop a flaw over time and began circling his hiding place with traces of wind spirit.

• Li Yan evaded Han Zhumei’s nearly imperceptible wind blade and launched a Heavy Water Bead before both cultivators vanished into the mist again.
• Li Yan realized Han Zhumei was a dangerous opponent and concluded that their encounter had made her unlikely to leave without trying to kill him.
• Han Zhumei suspected the hidden cultivator was Mu Guyue and decided to stay, recognizing the threat posed by an enemy skilled in concealment and assassination.
• Han Zhumei noticed a great tree subtly changing thickness and reasoned that the opponent’s concealment technique might show a flaw after about two hundred breaths.
• Han Zhumei drifted through the mist on wind currents, laying traces of wind spirit around the tree to slowly encircle her opponent.

Han Zhumei and Li Yan each tried to ambush the other, but Li Yan countered her wind-spirit encirclement with a Heaven and Earth Cage Array and attacked her directly. Han Zhumei escaped into the foggy forest, leaving their fight unresolved.

• Han Zhumei nearly completed an encirclement around Li Yan as he used his inner Five Elements to detect the subtle changes in the surrounding world.
• Li Yan slipped down the tree just before Han Zhumei unleashed a sweeping wind-spirit attack that destroyed the tree and the surrounding forest.
• Li Yan launched an ambush with flying needles and a Heaven and Earth Cage Array, catching Han Zhumei in a counter-encirclement.
• Han Zhumei blocked the needles with her white jade net as Li Yan charged and struck at her with a Heavy Water Bead.
• Han Zhumei recognized Li Yan as the Po Jun Sect trial-breaker and evaded his attack by drifting into her own wind-spirit assault.
• Han Zhumei used the turbulence to slip through the wind attacks and disappear into the dense forest.

Li Yan and Han Zhumei survived another concealed ambush exchange, each recognizing the other's skill and withdrawing to hunt in the mist. While Han Zhumei tried to make sense of Li Yan's trap, Ling Shan's search party detected a faint formation fluctuation ahead.

• Han Zhumei and Li Yan exchanged powerful attacks, then vanished into the forest without either gaining the advantage.
• Han Zhumei inferred that Li Yan had laid a hidden needle trap during their earlier clash and recognized how carefully he had baited her.
• Li Yan reviewed their fight, judged that he could escape but stayed because Han Zhumei threatened Mu Guyue and the others, then disappeared into the mist.
• Ling Shan received Han Zhumei's report and led a formation of cultivators inward to search for Po Jun Sect traces.
• Ling Shan sensed a faint formation-like fluctuation one hundred and thirty li ahead.

Ling Shan’s team discovered a formation where Mu Guyue and the Po Jun Sect forces were waiting, while other Ming Yan Sect teams searched nearby. Seeing the enemy divided, Mu Guyue ordered her disciples transformed with the Black Devil Race’s “Forging Devils” technique, preparing to exploit the advantage.

• Ling Shan detected signs of a formation, sent messages to the other teams, and cautiously led her group toward it.
• Mu Guyue and Ren Yanyu sensed the approaching enemies, and Ren Yanyu entered the formation’s core while Mu Guyue remained to command the defense.
• Ling Shan’s team reached the formation and debated whether it concealed the Po Jun Sect or served as a decoy as Ling Shan began examining its restrictions.
• Mu Guyue saw that only one Ming Yan Sect team had arrived and that another was still far away, so she ordered Banjiang and the Golden Core disciples to open their seas of consciousness.
• Mu Guyue sent devilish patterns into the disciples, activating “Forging Devils” and turning them into temporarily stronger half-human, half-devil fighters at the cost of severe pain and later weakness.

Mu Guyue and Ren Yanyu trapped Ling Shan and the Bright Flame Sect forces in a grand formation, then launched a surprise attack with devilified Broken Army Sect cultivators. The battle began with Mu Guyue confronting Ling Shan while Ren Yanyu sealed the formation against escape or reinforcements.

• Ling Shan broke the first formation and entered the dense fog alone, leaving three Nascent Soul cultivators to summon the other teams if danger arose.
• Mu Guyue led devilified disciples out of hiding and attacked Ling Shan, whose moment of hesitation let the attackers deploy formation flags.
• Ren Yanyu activated the grand formation, trapping Ling Shan and the Bright Flame Sect cultivators and blocking Ling Shan's sound-transmission talisman.
• The Broken Army Sect cultivators charged the trapped Bright Flame Sect forces as the defenders struck at the formation and sent out their own sound-transmission talismans.
• Mu Guyue caught up with Ling Shan, who drew a red whip, and Mu Guyue slashed at her neck with her crescent guard blade.

Mu Guyue ambushed Ling Shan and led the Pojun Sect in a brutal close-quarters assault that devastated the Myriad Flame Sect inside the formation. Outside, the observers waited for hours until Myriad Flame Sect disciples suddenly burst with light and began screaming and collapsing.

• Mu Guyue struck Ling Shan with a moonlight slash, then pressed her with a close-range knee and elbow attack as Ling Shan fought back with her whip and treasure.
• Pojun Sect cultivators followed Mu Guyue’s orders and charged their opponents with devilish qi, using speed and physical blows instead of spells.
• Ling Shan saw Myriad Flame Sect disciples fall in heaps as the Pojun Sect fighters tore through them in the fog.
• In the Blood Lamp Sect plaza, Shangguan Tianque worried that the teams had not yet met while the others waited for hours.
• Myriad Flame Sect disciples suddenly burst with light, screamed, and collapsed as Scholar Wei and the other observers reacted in alarm.

Mu Guyue’s Pojun Sect squad devastated Ling Shan’s Mingyan Sect force inside the Mountains and Rivers Painting, while the surviving Pojun cultivators were left badly injured. As an enemy Spirit Transformation cultivator began assaulting Ren Yanyu’s formation from outside, Mu Guyue launched a sudden attack to finish Ling Shan.

• Outside the painting, Elder Fang explained that the apparent deaths were forced expulsions, and Shangguan Tianque ordered the Pojun Sect survivors to heal.
• Inside the painting, Mu Guyue’s squad eliminated Ling Shan’s subordinates, leaving Ling Shan alone and many Pojun Sect cultivators gravely wounded.
• An effeminate middle-aged Mingyan Sect cultivator discovered Ling Shan’s squad had vanished, attacked the formation with his force, and summoned another Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Ren Yanyu struggled to sustain the formation as the attackers’ bombardment intensified and another powerful presence approached.
• Mu Guyue sprang behind Ling Shan and drove both knees down onto her shoulders while her crescent blades attacked from above and below.

Mu Guyue killed Ling Shan in the Mountain River Diagram, but two Spirit Transformation cultivators arrived outside the formation. Mu Guyue and Ren Yanyu prepared to follow their plan rather than rush into another fight.

• Mu Guyue dodged Ling Shan’s whip and crushed her protective light shield with a twin-elbow strike, killing her.
• Ling Shan’s death caused her crimson whip and fish-scale magic treasure to disappear from the Mountain River Diagram.
• Scholar Wei and Elder Yu saw Ling Shan awaken outside the diagram and cry out Mu Guyue’s name with killing intent.
• Mu Guyue learned from Ren Yanyu that two Spirit Transformation cultivators and other enemies had arrived outside the formation, while Ren Yanyu had likely been injured by its backlash.
• Banjiang suggested attacking the enemies, but Mu Guyue held back and asked Ren Yanyu to create loud rumbles as they waited for the right moment.