Chapter Summaries

Li Yan questioned Guan Feng about Guan Village’s flight and learned that the villagers had been controlled and pursued by powerful sects. After freeing them, he watched from nearby and proposed to Bai Rou that they settle the displaced villagers in a valley and help them recover, despite the danger of attracting the Mysterious Heroic Sect.

• Li Yan demanded that Guan Feng explain why Guan Village was fleeing and warned him not to lie.
• Guan Feng recounted Guan Village’s origins and its long history of being controlled and targeted by powerful sects.
• Li Yan explained that the villagers were likely still within the Mysterious Heroic Sect’s jurisdiction, removed the formation, and left with Bai Rou without making demands.
• Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang cautiously went outside to check whether Li Yan and Bai Rou had truly left.
• Li Yan secretly observed the villagers from nearby while Bai Rou asked about his intentions.
• Li Yan proposed settling the villagers in the valley where the little fox lived, and Bai Rou warned that gathering them could provoke the Mysterious Heroic Sect.

Li Yan explained that he wanted the Guan clan to understand the dangers pursuing them before offering them refuge, while Guan Yuanxiang and Guan Feng fled the Mystic Heroic Gate after learning it had falsely branded them as killers. Their attempt to repair Guan Feng’s puppet at a marketplace turned into an ambush, and Guan Yuanxiang escaped as Guan Feng’s battered puppet crashed nearby.

• Li Yan told Bai Rou he intended to hide the Guan clan in a secret realm and make them face the dangers before accepting his help.
• Guan Yuanxiang fled three pursuers after she and Guan Feng learned through Soul Searches that the Mystic Heroic Gate was seeking their clan under a false accusation.
• Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang entered a marketplace to repair his puppet, but its detection formation exposed their identities and the guards prepared an ambush.
• A disguised Spirit Transformation cultivator poisoned Guan Feng and attacked him while a shopkeeper stalled him.
• Guan Feng detonated five puppets to counterattack and shouted for Guan Yuanxiang to run, then fled toward her as the blast struck.
• Guan Yuanxiang escaped the marketplace, and Guan Feng’s battered puppet crashed into a crater near her.

Guan Yuanxiang fought her way past three Nascent Soul cultivators but collapsed before she could finish them, only to be rescued by Li Yan and Bai Rou. The chapter left Guan Feng recovering from poison in the wilderness as he woke and saw his rescuers.

• Guan Yuanxiang used the Ten Puppet Nascent Infant Tower Formation to break through the three Nascent Soul cultivators' encirclement, destroying most of her puppets and badly injuring herself.
• As Guan Yuanxiang fled, pill toxins and backlash from her damaged life-bound puppet drained her spiritual power, and the three pursuers closed in.
• Guan Yuanxiang tried to form the technique again, but her meridians failed; just as a black cloak descended to capture her, an unfamiliar voice interrupted.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou appeared, froze the three pursuers in place, and killed them with a single strike.
• In the wilderness, Bai Rou treated Guan Feng's poison, and Guan Feng woke to see Li Yan and Bai Rou nearby.

Li Yan offered Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang refuge beyond the Profound Heroic Sect’s territory in exchange for access to the Guan clan’s puppet arts and a future supply of powerful puppets. Guan Feng agreed to negotiate the terms and sought a promise to protect the Guan clan, while Li Yan discussed contracts and plans for their development.

• After expelling the poison, Guan Feng begged Li Yan and Bai Rou to save him and Guan Yuanxiang.
• Li Yan offered the pair a safe place to rebuild the Guan clan, freedom to come and go, and initial spiritual stones in exchange for their cooperation.
• Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang recognized that Li Yan wanted the clan’s puppet arts and puppets, but preferred dealing with him over the Profound Heroic Sect and Rain-Moistening Sect.
• Li Yan asked Bai Rou to study the Guan clan’s true puppet arts privately and required the clan to make at least Nascent Soul-level puppets from materials he would provide.
• Guan Feng agreed to both conditions but asked Li Yan to make a promise protecting the Guan clan.
• Li Yan began discussing the puppet order and a contract, and said he hoped Guan Feng would soon reach the Void Refinement realm.

Li Yan secured Guan Feng and the Guan clan’s cooperation, then evaded Mystic Heroic Sect’s renewed search by changing his appearance and traveling through a teleportation array. More than two years later, he and Bai Rou returned to the valley and found the little fox cultivating in the thatched hut.

• Li Yan, Bai Rou, and Guan Feng formed a contract, and Li Yan gave Guan Feng fifth-grade healing Pills for the injured Guan clan members.
• Li Yan placed Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang in Tuban’s spirit-storage space, then Bai Rou agreed to hide there while they traveled through Mystic Heroic Sect’s territory.
• Li Yan disguised himself and discovered that Mystic Heroic Sect was inspecting jade slips bearing portraits of him, Bai Rou, and Guan Village’s cultivators.
• Li Yan passed inspection by presenting Phantom Sect’s token and showing no spirit-storage artifact, then he and Bai Rou continued their journey.
• More than two years later, Li Yan and Bai Rou returned to the valley, and Li Yan startled the little fox when he entered the thatched hut.

Li Yan and Bai Rou brought the Guan clan to a secluded lakeside refuge and laid out the rules for settling there. The clan accepted the arrangement, while the fiery-red fox remained in its home and was entrusted to their care.

• Li Yan and Bai Rou visited the fiery-red fox, assured it that human cultivators would not disturb its cultivation, and altered its memories to conceal their identities.
• Li Yan transported the Guan clan to the lakeside refuge, where Guan Feng, Guan Hong'an, and Guan Tianxi discussed the bargain and agreed that accepting help in exchange for their puppet arts was worthwhile.
• The Guan clan inspected the lake and its surroundings, then bowed to Li Yan and Bai Rou in respect.
• Li Yan forbade the clan from approaching the thatched hut, permitted them to build villages around the lake, and warned them about the miasma beyond the forest and mountains.
• Li Yan told the Guan clan to leave the fiery-red fox undisturbed and help it if it needed anything, and Guan Feng agreed to follow his instructions.

Li Yan and Bai Rou settled the Guan clan in the hidden area and brought Guan Feng to help plan its defenses. Guan Feng proposed a concealment formation, and the three settled on the Chaotic Flowers Bewilder Butterflies Array as their initial plan.

• Li Yan warned the little fox to seek help from the four powerful cultivators only when necessary and told the Guan clan to treat it as an equal.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou prepared new teleportation arrays and stronger defenses while the Guan villagers cleared land and began building houses.
• Guan Feng confirmed the area was not under Xuanying Sect jurisdiction and recognized the Shattered Star Array in Li Yan's thatched cottage.
• Li Yan trusted Guan Feng to help protect the little fox's home and took him through the teleportation array to inspect the valley.
• Guan Feng recognized that the lake led to a secret realm and suggested concealing the valley and its mountainside entrance.
• Li Yan, Bai Rou, and Guan Feng discussed defensive formations and chose the Chaotic Flowers Bewilder Butterflies Array for their initial plan.

Guan Feng and Li Yan gathered materials to restore the Guan clan’s “Chaotic Flowers Bewildering Butterflies” formation, and Guan Feng returned with news that their refuge was a secret realm far from the Xuanying Sect. Guan Hong'an and the others began building the village, hopeful that the arrangement would give Guan Village a new life.

• Guan Feng named the materials needed for the formation, and Li Yan and the woman in white found they already had most of them.
• Li Yan and the others visited a market, bought the available materials and merchant-recommended substitutes, and told Guan Feng to test them.
• Guan Feng returned to the lake with multiple portions of the formation materials, leaving him overwhelmed with emotion.
• Guan Feng told Guan Hong'an and the other two that they were in a secret realm far from the Xuanying Sect and that he would refine the village’s formation.
• Guan Hong'an, Guan Yuanxiang, and the other Nascent Soul cultivators resolved to build the village, encouraged by the seniors’ apparent decision to let them manage the secret realm.

More than a year after Guan Village settled in the secret realm, Guan Feng exchanged puppet arts with Bai Rou and gained insights that later transformed the clan’s tradition. After Li Yan and Bai Rou departed, they traveled through a snowy wilderness and recalled their recent escape from a Body Integration Ghost Infant Beast.

• Guan Feng completed the village’s defenses, controlled its new concealed formation, and began exchanging puppet arts with Bai Rou.
• Bai Rou’s ideas broadened Guan Feng’s understanding, and four months later Li Yan and Bai Rou departed while Guan Feng entered seclusion.
• The Guan clansmen settled into their new lives as years passed, while Li Yan and Bai Rou continued traveling together.
• Li Yan recalled that he and Bai Rou had fled Ghost Infant Beasts after a Body Integration beast ambushed him and shattered half his body.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou crossed the snowbound wilderness on the Cloud-Piercing Blade, wary of unknown dangers.

Li Yan escaped the Ghost Infant Beast through the turbulent spatial currents, recovered from his injuries, and discovered that he and Bai Rou were lost in a remote snowy region. After detecting a large battle nearby, he went to investigate, where Ye Moran’s group was desperately defending a trapped crowd.

• Li Yan fled through the turbulent spatial currents until the Ghost Infant Beast abandoned its pursuit, then returned to the Immortal-Spirit Realm and realized he was lost.
• Li Yan hid underground, treated his injuries for more than ten days, and drew Bai Rou from his spirit-storage space after recovering.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou searched the remote snowy region for directions, and Li Yan reassured her that the area showed no clear signs of a powerful Demon Beast’s territory.
• Li Yan detected more than two hundred people fighting twenty-four thousand li away and decided to investigate with Bai Rou.
• Ye Moran directed his people to defend their array and protect the trapped crowd as the battle continued through the snow.

Ye Moran’s escort party was ambushed in a snowy wasteland and fought to defend a breached formation while waiting for help. Li Yan and Bai Rou watched from a distance, waiting for the battle to weaken before making their move.

• Ye Moran ordered the surviving Windleading Beasts to the ground and used their bodies to help form a defensive position after the ambush killed many of them.
• Murong Mei and five companions attacked an enemy shield while Xiao Dao repaired the formation, as the attackers pressed in from all sides.
• Ye Moran assessed the masked leaders and considered who might have arranged the ambush, while his side waited for reinforcements.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou stopped a thousand li from the battlefield and waited for casualties to mount before attempting to capture someone.
• The two Void Refinement attackers joined the fight, forcing Ye Moran to leave the formation and face them while it came under mortal threat.

Ye Moran and his outnumbered team fought to protect their assigned objectives from a carefully planned ambush, while the formation below neared collapse. After Feng Xiao sacrificed himself to kill an enemy, Murong Mei began preparing her trump-card technique, and Ye Moran ordered a breakout if most of the objectives were lost.

• Ye Moran attacked the enemy’s mid-stage and late-stage Void Refinement cultivators while Murong Mei and the others fought to defend the damaged formation from eight Spirit Transformation enemies and their Nascent Soul forces.
• An enemy crippled one of Ye Moran’s Spirit Transformation cultivators, but Feng Xiao used a Nascent Soul secret art to kill one opponent and then sacrificed his Nascent Soul to destroy another.
• Murong Mei prepared to unleash Fire Trees and Silver Blossoms as her enemies tried to interrupt her, while Ye Moran sensed that the objectives and formation were close to being overrun.
• Ye Moran told Wang Junze and the other Spirit Transformation cultivators to lead a breakout if seventy percent of the objectives were killed, and ordered them to carry the news back to Return as You Came.

Li Yan joined the battle between Guiqulaixi and the black-clothed cultivators, sending Bai Rou to harass the enemy while he prepared to strike a Void Refinement cultivator. As the formation neared collapse and the battle turned more desperate, Ye Moran was badly wounded by a meteor hammer.

• Li Yan discovered the battle and told Bai Rou to harass the black-clothed Nascent Soul cultivators while he attacked their Void Refinement fighters.
• Bai Rou agreed, summoned her ancient ape puppet, and Li Yan carried her into the battle through the Spirit Storage Space.
• Li Yan reached the failing formation, where Little Blade struggled to repair its breaches as the close combat caused mounting casualties.
• Li Yan covertly brought Bai Rou near the enemy and told her to attack, then moved away to conceal his own approach.
• Murong Mei retreated while weighing whether to draw two pursuers into the range of her technique, and another Spirit Transformation cultivator on her side fell.
• A meteor hammer struck Ye Moran's left forearm, tearing away part of it and leaving him bleeding heavily as he continued fighting two Void Refinement cultivators.

Ye Moran struggled to hold off two masked Void Refinement cultivators as his spiritual power ran low and the battle around the damaged formation turned against his side. At the rear of the Nascent Soul battlefield, Bai Rou launched a surprise attack with her puppets, and both sides realized the fight had suddenly changed.

• Ye Moran recognized that he had only a few breaths of strength left and searched the battlefield for a way to wound his opponents.
• Ye Moran and the masked men sensed a sudden burst of spiritual energy behind the Nascent Soul battlefield and were startled by the unexpected attack.
• Li Yan gave Bai Rou a one-breath window, and she deployed fifteen crocodile puppets alongside the ancient ape puppet.
• Bai Rou entered the ancient ape puppet and sent it charging forward as the crocodile puppets fired emerald pillars of light across the snow.

As the Guiqulaixi formation neared collapse, Bai Rou launched a surprise attack with her puppets, turning the battle against the black-clad cultivators. Li Yan used the ensuing distraction to appear behind a weaker Void Refinement cultivator and strike with Ning Ke’s “Withering” technique.

• Xiaodao continued reinforcing the failing formation while the Guiqulaixi cultivators struggled to hold off the black-clad attackers.
• Bai Rou’s sudden puppet assault struck the black-clad cultivators from behind and overwhelmed their formation-side positions.
• Bai Rou followed up with targeted attacks, killing attackers and drawing the attention of cultivators fighting elsewhere.
• Li Yan watched Bai Rou’s attack, recognized her unexpected strength, and selected a middle void refinement realm opponent as his target.
• As Bai Rou’s assault distracted the black-clad cultivator, Li Yan appeared behind him and used “Withering” to break through his spiritual power barrier.

Li Yan ambushed and killed two masked men in black while Ye Moran fought their remaining companion amid the wind and snow. Li Yan then appeared beside the strange cauldron, daggers in hand, as Ye Moran sensed the battle’s true outcome.

• Li Yan used Pitch Night to block a masked man’s Divine Sense, struck him with Withering, and drained his vitality until he died.
• Ye Moran noticed a brief disturbance in his Divine Sense and attacked the other masked man with a red thread as he retreated.
• Li Yan used Phoenix Soars to Heaven to rush the second masked man, who deployed a strange cauldron and black smoke.
• Li Yan evaded the cauldron with an afterimage, struck the masked man from behind, and killed him with a rapid barrage of attacks.
• Li Yan looted both dead men’s treasures and appeared near the cauldron with daggers in hand as Ye Moran watched.

Li Yan and Bai Rou helped Ye Moran’s Guiqulaixi group defeat the masked attackers, and Li Yan collected the enemies’ magical treasures. After obtaining maps from Ye Moran, Li Yan prepared to leave, but Ye Moran stopped him and offered the battle spoils.

• Li Yan killed two masked black-clad Void Refinement cultivators, while Ye Moran rushed to aid Murong Mei and the other Guiqulaixi fighters.
• Bai Rou and the Guiqulaixi cultivators coordinated their attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the black-clad men and breaking the enemy formation.
• Li Yan collected the small cauldron and dharma conch, then joined Bai Rou as Ye Moran thanked him for intervening.
• Li Yan explained that he had repaid a debt to a Guiqulaixi manager and asked Ye Moran for maps of the surrounding region.
• Ye Moran gave Li Yan three jade slips containing maps, and Li Yan confirmed that his route toward Phantom Sect had improved.
• As Li Yan prepared to leave, Ye Moran called Xiaodao over with the gathered storage rings and presented Li Yan with another high-grade storage ring.

Li Yan and Bai Rou accepted the spoils from Ye Moran and left, with Li Yan giving Bai Rou most of the treasures and spirit stones. Elsewhere, Bai Rou fought a fifth-rank three-eyed inkfish with the ancient ape puppet and found a chance to strike at its head.

• Ye Moran gave Li Yan and Bai Rou the enemies’ belongings and a token ring, while warning that his branch offices would need time to verify their claim.
• Li Yan accepted the spoils and handed most of them to Bai Rou, who reluctantly took the treasures and spirit stones after insisting he keep a share.
• Ye Moran told Murong Mei that Li Yan was an early Void Refinement poison cultivator, ordered the enemy corpses destroyed, and kept suspicious tokens and other evidence for himself.
• Bai Rou used the ancient ape puppet to evade the three-eyed inkfish’s tentacles while studying their attack patterns and locating gaps near its head.
• Bai Rou seized an opening and drove the ancient ape puppet toward the three-eyed inkfish’s head to attack.

Bai Rou battled a three-eyed squid with the Thousand-Layer Ancient Ape, but Li Yan saved her by severing several of its tentacles. As they continued toward the Phantom Sect, Bai Rou asked for more dangerous training, while the thought of returning to the sect in six or seven years stirred reluctance in her.

• Bai Rou's ancient ape puppet attacked the three-eyed squid, but the beast countered with black fluid that threatened both her and the puppet.
• Li Yan intervened at the critical moment, severing several of the squid's tentacles and allowing Bai Rou to escape in the Cloud-Piercing Blade.
• Bai Rou reflected on how years of dangerous battles had brought her to the peak of the mid-Nascent Soul stage and let her challenge early Spirit Transformation opponents with the puppet.
• Li Yan praised Bai Rou's fighting strength, and she responded by noting the advantage of the puppet's materials and the difference between upper- and lower-realm cultivators.
• Bai Rou asked Li Yan to hide during future fights so opponents would attack her with their full strength, and Li Yan warned that this would increase the danger.
• Bai Rou said they were likely six or seven years from the Phantom Sect and insisted she was only reluctant to lose opportunities for training after returning.

Li Yan and Bai Rou set out together after agreeing that she should spend several years reflecting on her experiences. In the Main Dao Realm, Su Hong reviewed reports of coordinated attacks on Guiqulaixi and continued to wonder about the missing Li Yan.

• Li Yan agreed with Bai Rou that prolonged killing could make a cultivator bloodthirsty and that she needed time for calm reflection.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou flew forward together on the Cloud-Piercing Blade.
• Su Hong reviewed reports and noticed that ambushers repeatedly suppressed Guiqulaixi forces by precisely one level.
• Su Hong recalled that investigations had uncovered only minor accomplices while a cunning enemy force remained hidden within Guiqulaixi.
• Su Hong thought about Li Yan's failure to return after promising to seek her help, and remembered how her parents had doubted her explanation for waiting in the North Pasture Realm.