Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and Mu Guyue took over a beacon tower on the western defensive line after the blue-armored garrison handed it over. As they mapped the surrounding region and prepared defenses, an urgent alarm sounded, signaling that something was happening.

• Li Yan presented a special jade slip, and the departing garrison verified it with the Moji Dao Sect’s seals before handing over the fortress.
• The blue-armored commander explained the beacon tower’s defenses, reporting procedures, and supply formation before leaving with his men.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue took control of the formations and learned that repeated Moshadian raids had caused severe casualties among the previous garrison.
• Mu Guyue led four Nascent Soul cultivators to scout the surrounding area and coordinate limited mutual assistance with neighboring beacon towers.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue marked the region on a map and began planning auxiliary formations near Ghostsound City’s defensive approaches.
• An urgent buzzing alarm sounded inside the room, and Li Yan turned to look outside.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue faced a probing visit from Moxie Hall cultivators at the Southern Fang Beacon Tower and suspected an attack was coming. After deciding not to pursue the scouts, Li Yan later left the tower alone under concealment, heading into the night.

• An alarm brought Li Yan, Mu Guyue, and the defenders to the western wall, where they saw a group led by a tumor-headed Spirit Transformation cultivator appear across the Gobi.
• The tumor-headed man insulted the defenders and vanished with his group; Mu Guyue judged that they had come to test their strength and intimidate them.
• Mu Guyue suggested taking the initiative rather than merely defending, while a Nascent Soul cultivator warned that the enemy’s main army was encamped nearby.
• The tumor-headed man and his Moxie Hall companions regrouped underground, suspected the beacon tower might be guarded by veterans, and decided to report back to their lord.
• At midnight, Li Yan slipped away from the Southern Fang Beacon Tower using Tidefall and Night Concealment, scanning his surroundings with Divine Sense as he traveled.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue planned a linked ambush to protect the Fang Beacon Tower, with Li Yan moving out alone to intercept the enemy. Li Yan struck a hidden Mosha Hall force in the poplar forest, but the attack revealed that its green-robed leader was far stronger than expected.

• After suspecting the Mosha Hall would soon attack, Mu Guyue decided to ambush the enemy along its likely route while keeping the beacon tower defended.
• Li Yan rejected Mu Guyue’s request to bring four Nascent Soul cultivators and traveled alone to the poplar forest, where he prepared to ambush the enemy or return to the tower if they took another route.
• The sickly green-robed deputy commander heard reports from his Spirit Transformation five-man leaders and ordered his scout battalion to depart within half a quarter-hour.
• Li Yan concealed himself in the forest and attacked a gray cloud passing overhead with a golden flying sword and a lightning talisman.
• The gray cloud dispersed to reveal more than twenty Mosha Hall cultivators led by the green-robed man, who blocked Li Yan’s attacks and exposed a powerful aura that shocked him.

Li Yan fell into a trap set by a mid-stage Void Refinement cultivator from Moshadian Hall and fled underground toward the South Fang Beacon Tower. At the same time, Moshadian Hall launched a coordinated surprise attack on the tower and its neighbors, where Mu Guyue prepared to defend against the assault.

• Li Yan discovered that the apparent cultivators in the gray cloud were illusions and that the sickly man in the green robe was a mid-stage Void Refinement expert.
• The sickly man attacked Li Yan with a bone-piercing nail, but Li Yan used a prepared formation to escape into the forest and then burrowed underground.
• The sickly man broke through Li Yan's formation and pursued him, mocking his attempt to escape with earth movement.
• Mu Guyue saw explosions erupt along the South Fang Beacon Tower's walls as more than a hundred Moshadian Hall cultivators launched a surprise attack.
• Mu Guyue sensed that the nearby beacon towers were under attack too, while the enemy's powerful opening assault threatened to overwhelm the defenses.

Mu Guyue took control of the beacon tower’s formation as the Mocha Hall launched a surprise assault, then emerged to confront the lumpy late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator. Their weapons clashed, but an unseen black spike struck his soul and left him reeling.

• Mu Guyue ordered the defenders to hold the grand formation for thirty breaths and assigned Azure-Armored cultivators to its nodes.
• The Mocha Hall attacked the Southern Fang Beacon Tower from multiple directions, concentrating forces there to prevent other towers from helping.
• Mu Guyue left the city wall and launched her crescent handguard blade at the lumpy man, while he ordered his troops to keep attacking.
• The lumpy man blocked Mu Guyue’s blade with his black iron staff, and both fighters felt the strength of the other’s attack.
• As the lumpy man gathered power for another strike, an undetected black spike stabbed his soul and extinguished the fierce light in his eyes.

Mu Guyue used soul attacks and her crescent handguard blades to kill two Spirit Transformation Realm squad leaders, shocking the enemy forces. As the remaining four cultivators joined forces against her, the battle continued with Mu Guyue reflecting on the speed and effectiveness of Li Yan’s one-strike approach.

• Mu Guyue struck Squad Leader Feng with a soul technique and cleaved him and his Nascent Soul in half with her crescent handguard blade.
• Mu Guyue charged the white-robed young man, disrupted his soul with Soul-Severing Slash, and killed him with her twin blades.
• The remaining Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators recognized Mu Guyue as a Devil Race cultivator and began converging to surround her.
• Mu Guyue reached the retreating alluring woman before the four enemies could fully join together and considered how her attacks compared with Li Yan’s.
• Mu Guyue reflected that soul cultivators could swiftly kill powerful opponents but remained vulnerable because their bodies were frail.

Mu Guyue killed a Misha Hall Spirit Transformation cultivator in an ambush while Li Yan drew a Void Refinement expert into their layered trap. They escaped into the beacon tower’s formation, which the green-robed man battered as he realized his subordinates had been outmaneuvered.

• Mu Guyue lured the seductive woman into a weak underground formation, then pierced her with bone spikes and destroyed her body, leaving her Nascent Soul alive.
• As three Spirit Transformation cultivators surrounded Mu Guyue, Li Yan attacked them from behind and urged her to retreat into the formation.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue entered the beacon tower and took control of its grand formation just as the green-robed Void Refinement expert struck it.
• The green-robed man realized Li Yan had used poison and a double-layered scheme to escape, while two of his capable subordinates had been killed.
• The green-robed man struck the formation again as Li Yan, Mu Guyue, and four Nascent Soul cultivators held it, astonishing the Nascent Soul cultivators with their strength.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue endured Gui Qing’s devastating attack on the Southern Fang Beacon Tower until Zhao Haiyang arrived and forced him to retreat. Zhao Haiyang then presented his token and asked what had provoked Gui Qing.

• Gui Qing unleashed a massive saber strike against the Beacon Tower formation, injuring Li Yan, Mu Guyue, and the cultivators sheltering inside.
• Zhao Haiyang arrived and stopped Gui Qing’s saber with a dragon-tongue spear before Gui Qing withdrew westward.
• Li Yan refused to reveal his name to Gui Qing, who left vowing to eliminate the cultivators at the tower.
• Li Yan awakened the unconscious Golden Core cultivators and led Mu Guyue and the injured Nascent Soul cultivators to meet Zhao Haiyang.
• Zhao Haiyang showed his token above the still-active formation and asked what had provoked Gui Qing.

Zhao Haiyang praised Li Yan and Mu Guyue for their victory over Mosha Hall and offered them posts at Wind Signal Camp, which they accepted after resolving their concerns about leaving South Fang Beacon Tower. Half a month later, after helping repel repeated attacks, they received transfer orders and departed, leaving their former subordinates reluctant to see them go.

• Zhao Haiyang heard Li Yan's account of the trap that killed three Mosha Hall cultivators and promised South Fang Beacon Tower a merit and rewards.
• After learning Li Yan and Mu Guyue belonged to Heavenbreaker Sect, Zhao Haiyang offered them positions at Wind Signal Camp, and Li Yan asked whether they could transfer so soon after arriving.
• Zhao Haiyang assured them that their transfer could proceed with their agreement, and they later received orders to leave South Fang Beacon Tower.
• During the following half month, Li Yan and Mu Guyue led the defense through nine more clashes, helping their side inflict heavier losses on Mosha Hall.
• After handing the beacon tower over to three arriving Spirit Transformation cultivators, Li Yan and Mu Guyue bid farewell to their subordinates and flew toward the rear.

Li Yan searched the Dark Domain Swamp for a yin vein while suspecting the Wind Messenger Camp was deliberately sending him on deadly missions. After learning that Zhao Haiyang had propositioned Mu Guyue, the two connected his assignments to Zhao and considered how to respond.

• Li Yan's squad searched the swamp for a branch of Mosha Hall's yin vein, suffering two deaths and one injury without finding any clues.
• Li Yan recalled how he had been repeatedly transferred into Deathwind squads and sent on missions with exceptionally high casualty rates after leaving Mu Guyue's squad.
• Mu Guyue told Li Yan that Zhao Haiyang had asked her to serve as his deputy commander, and she said she had told him Li Yan was her Dao Companion.
• Li Yan explained his suspicions that Zhao Haiyang was behind his dangerous assignments, and Mu Guyue grew angry as she realized their missions had kept them apart.
• Mu Guyue warned Li Yan that his missions were too dangerous to continue and asked what they should do.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue planned to escape Zhao Haiyang’s control without endangering the Pojun Sect. During a dangerous scouting mission in the Dark Domain Marsh, Li Yan detected unusual yin energy inside a tree hollow.

• Li Yan warned Mu Guyue that Zhao Haiyang would make her situation more dangerous, and they agreed to wait for a chance to act without implicating the Pojun Sect.
• Li Yan proposed that after the mission they would accept another assignment together, approach Ghost Sound City, and appeal to Chunyang Hall’s Elders’ Hall.
• Li Yan flew through the Dark Domain Marsh with four other members of a Deathwind squad, keeping his displayed divine sense limited to conceal his true ability.
• Li Yan noticed yin energy leaking from a hollow at the base of a bare tree, despite the marsh’s death energy and miasma suppressing yin energy.

Li Yan used the Dark Domain Swamp mission to build a favor and conceal his plans while Zhao Haiyang paused his attempts to target him. After Li Yan and Mu Guyue left the military camp together on a personal mission near Ghostsound City, Zhao Haiyang learned they were seeking Hongluo Dao.

• Li Yan returned from the Dark Domain Swamp mission with severe injuries, and Zhao Haiyang decided to stop arranging dangerous missions for him temporarily.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue spent two months in seclusion while Zhao Haiyang monitored them.
• A bearded cultivator who owed Li Yan a favor told him about a new mission near Ghostsound City, as planned.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue accepted a personal mission and left the military camp together.
• Zhao Haiyang learned that General Niu's mission was to find Hongluo Dao, a Rakshasa Hall cultivator reportedly seen near Ghostsound City.

Zhao Haiyang sent Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh to intercept Li Yan and Mu Guyue as they traveled toward Ghost Sound City. The two travelers disguised themselves as ordinary ghost cultivators, unaware that their pursuers were concealed underground nearby.

• Zhao Haiyang ordered Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh to kill Li Yan and Mu Guyue if they got the chance, and to meet him eight days later regardless of the outcome.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh used a concealed one-way teleportation array to travel ahead of Li Yan and Mu Guyue.
• On their fourth day out, Li Yan and Mu Guyue sensed powerful enemy scans near Ghost Sound City and decided to stop hiding their auras.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue swallowed black-red pills that changed their appearances and auras, then flew away disguised as ordinary young ghost cultivators.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh remained concealed a thousand li underground, waiting for Li Yan and Mu Guyue to pass.

Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu tracked Li Yan and Mu Guyue toward Ghostsound City using a secret method that detected their identity tokens. Li Yan and Mu Guyue sensed the pair following them and changed course, but Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu remained unaware that their pursuit had been noticed.

• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu detected Li Yan and Mu Guyue's identity tokens with bronze ring ornaments and set off after them in disguise.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue flew toward Ghostsound City under the concealment of Ghost Transformation Pills while enemy cultivators repeatedly probed them with divine sense.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue approached a vast emerald river and discussed the water-dwelling clans and beasts said to guard the frontier.
• Li Yan noticed a bald old man and a young man following them, and Mu Guyue identified the pair as the two trailing cultivators.
• Mu Guyue told Li Yan to change direction, and the pair turned south.
• Min Bufu noticed their change of course, but Kong Qianqiu assumed they had received a lead on their mission and continued the pursuit.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue suspected that Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu were tracking them with items provided by the Moji Dao Sect, so they left those items behind to mislead their pursuers. Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu discovered the decoy but failed to find their targets, and later realized Li Yan and Mu Guyue had discarded all the sect-issued gear because they only suspected a tracking mark.

• Li Yan and Mu Guyue reasoned that the two men following them might include Zhao Haiyang, and suspected the Moji Dao Sect’s issued items were being used to track them.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu followed the signal from a bronze ring pendant to a remote valley, where they mistook a decoy for Li Yan and Mu Guyue lying in wait.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu found a Storage Pouch inside a formation that blocked Divine Sense and realized Li Yan and Mu Guyue had lured them away with discarded items.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu searched the area for hours but found neither Li Yan nor Mu Guyue, then returned to inspect the abandoned gear.
• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu found azure armor, pill bottles, and identity tokens, and Min Bufu concluded that Li Yan and Mu Guyue had only suspected one of the items contained a tracking mark.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue ambushed Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh, using concealed poison and Soul-Splitting Slash to defeat them before Li Yan searched their memories and killed them. Li Yan learned they were Zhao Haiyang’s trusted aides, leaving him and Mu Guyue with their identities and belongings to investigate.

• Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh examined the items from the Moji Dao Sect and prepared to use them to ensnare Li Yan and Mu Guyue.
• Li Yan and Mu Guyue revealed themselves after secretly observing the pair and confirming Zhao Haiyang was absent.
• Li Yan’s poison weakened Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh, while Mu Guyue struck Kong Qianqiu with Soul-Splitting Slash; Li Yan captured both men.
• Li Yan sealed the pair’s cultivation, searched their memories, and learned they were Zhao Haiyang’s trusted aides and elders of third-rate sects.
• Li Yan burned Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufuh to ashes and collected their storage rings, prompting Mu Guyue to ask what had happened.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue uncovered how the Moji Dao Sect’s bronze pendants tracked identity tokens and weighed how to deal with Zhao Haiyang. Li Yan proposed a deception using the Truth-Confusing Pill, then revealed a spiritual aura that convinced Mu Guyue he could pass as a late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator.

• Li Yan explained that the bronze pendants could detect identity tokens even inside ordinary storage rings, but not inside Empty Shadow or Tuban, and he and Mu Guyue hid their belongings in Empty Shadow.
• Mu Guyue asked whether they should seek the Guiyun Laixi Trading Firm in Ghostsound City or confront Zhao Haiyang, and Li Yan rejected a head-on fight while proposing a scheme.
• Li Yan used the Truth-Confusing Pill to transform into Kong Qianqiu so convincingly that Mu Guyue could not detect the disguise.
• Mu Guyue raised the problem of concealing their cultivation from Zhao Haiyang, a Void Refinement expert.
• Li Yan briefly revealed an aura of late-stage Spirit Transformation, astonishing Mu Guyue, before returning to his late-stage Nascent Soul aura.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue finalized their plan to meet Zhao Haiyang, with Li Yan concealing his cultivation and preparing to impersonate Kong Qianqiu. Several days later, Li Yan reached the meeting place and encountered Zhao Haiyang.

• Li Yan explained that Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos could temporarily raise his cultivation, while Mu Guyue asked about its risks and accepted his assurances.
• Li Yan instructed Mu Guyue to wait near Ghostsound City and refused to let her accompany him to meet Zhao Haiyang.
• Several days later, Li Yan used Kong Qianqiu's identity and followed signals from a Windwatch Camp sound-transmission tablet to a forest meeting place.
• After checking that he had not been followed, Li Yan revealed himself as Kong Qianqiu, and Zhao Haiyang stepped out from behind a tree.

Zhao Haiyang joined Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu outside Ghostsound City, then entered the city disguised as a Golden Core cultivator to pursue Mu Guyue. After locating her inn, Zhao Haiyang stayed in the crowded tavern while his two subordinates departed, leaving the next move uncertain.

• Kong Qianqiu told Zhao Haiyang that Mu Guyue and Li Yan had entered Ghostsound City, so he and Min Bufu had continued tracking them instead of attacking.
• Zhao Haiyang ordered Kong Qianqiu to keep watch, then decided to enter Ghostsound City after learning Mu Guyue remained at the Rising Peace Inn.
• Zhao Haiyang and Kong Qianqiu disguised themselves as elderly Golden Core cultivators and passed the city’s inspection without incident.
• At the inn, Min Bufu told Zhao Haiyang that Mu Guyue was in her room and Li Yan was away, then gave him a jade slip with their room location.
• Zhao Haiyang told Kong Qianqiu and Min Bufu to leave and keep watch while he remained in the crowded tavern, observing the inn.

Min Bufui escaped Ghostsound City while Kong Qianqiu reported Zhao Haiyang to the Mosha Hall, prompting cultivators to surround Shengping Inn and inspect its occupants. The green-robed leader cleared Zhao Haiyang, but both men suddenly acted at the same moment, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Min Bufui passed through the city gate and blended into the crowd leaving Ghostsound City.
• Kong Qianqiu secretly told a Mosha Hall patrol captain that a suspected Void Refinement Realm cultivator from the Moji Dao Sect was at Shengping Inn.
• The Mosha Hall detained Kong Qianqiu and sent cultivators to surround Shengping Inn while Zhao Haiyang waited inside, unaware of the report.
• The green-robed cultivator ordered the inn's occupants to show proof of identity and singled out Zhao Haiyang for questioning.
• Zhao Haiyang presented a genuine identity token claiming he had come from Flowing Night City, and the green-robed cultivator declared him clear.
• As the green-robed cultivator turned away, he and Zhao Haiyang suddenly acted at the same moment.