Chapter Summaries

Li Yan confronted a gaunt poison cultivator in a cave, but their conversation revealed conflicting assumptions about why they had come there. After the man reluctantly let Li Yan search a side passage, Li Yan triggered a hidden black net that trapped them both, and the chapter ended with the two accusing each other of deceit.

• The gaunt middle-aged man appeared above the stream after his poison attack failed, and Li Yan questioned him about his poison and origins.
• The man assumed Li Yan had come over a stolen cultivation technique and accused him of bringing others, while Li Yan suspected the Phantom Sect might have sent him into a trap.
• Li Yan claimed he had come seeking high-level corpse demons and demanded an explanation for the sneak attack, but the man insisted he had been cultivating there first.
• Li Yan demanded permission to inspect the cave's rear passages, and the gaunt middle-aged man reluctantly agreed.
• As Li Yan flew past the man toward a side cave, he triggered black threads hidden among the stalactites, forming a net that descended over both of them.

Li Yan saw through the demon beast’s trap and destroyed its poison net, then faced the beast’s true body in the cave. Their poison arts proved dangerous to each other, and the chapter ended with Li Yan’s surprise punch hitting the beast’s shoulder without drawing blood.

• Li Yan used his warning sense to strike the cave ceiling and evade the demon beast’s black poison net, which destroyed a decoy body and then dissolved into the ground.
• Li Yan confronted the scarlet-eyed demon beast and explained that its impatience and careless treatment of its cave abode had exposed its deception.
• Li Yan and the demon beast recognized that their respective poisons could threaten them, as the demon beast’s poison suppressed Li Yan’s Shattered Poison while Li Yan’s wind-blade poison hurt the demon beast’s body.
• The demon beast sensed an attack from empty space, spat red mist, and dodged as Li Yan launched a concealed punch.
• Li Yan struck the demon beast’s right shoulder, but the blow did not make it cough up blood.

Li Yan battled a late-stage Void Refinement Blood-Eyed Toad, enduring its potent poison while using his speed and physical strength to overwhelm it. Meanwhile, Zhao Min and her companions navigated the ghostly trial grounds and suffered injuries in a clash with Extinction Sect poison cultivators.

• Li Yan struck the Blood-Eyed Toad, whose red blisters absorbed force and whose green poison turned his hand to stone, but his Fragmented Poison Body contained the toxins at his wrist.
• Li Yan shattered the poisoned growth on his hand, regenerated his palm with his Undying Nether Phoenix bloodline, and launched another rapid attack.
• The Blood-Eyed Toad inflated into a gigantic fat man, but Li Yan pursued it and battered it through the cave with a storm of punches and kicks.
• Zhao Min and the other three advanced through the trial grounds, avoiding corpse ghosts and yin beasts and using a swarm of one-legged yin beasts to escape danger.
• Zhao Min’s group fought Extinction Sect poison cultivators; Zhao Min was poisoned and left half-paralyzed, but she severed an enemy’s hand while Gong Chen Ying’s spear blocked a killing strike.

Zhao Min and her companions fought off Extinction Sect cultivators, continued through the Ghostlands, and entered a dangerous forest despite Zhao Min’s recent injuries. Beneath the forest, they discovered an immense swarm of corpse-water insects rising through the soil, though there were no tombs below.

• Zhao Min and her companions survived a battle against two Extinction Sect cultivators after Bai Rou’s puppets helped them break the enemy’s formation and rescue Zhao Min.
• On the twelfth day, Zhao Min rejected Zi Kun’s shortcut proposal, and the group resumed their planned route in formation.
• The group approached and entered a forest filled with poisonous mists, carefully watching for phantom-variegated threads.
• Zhao Min noticed low-rank corpse-water insects emerging from the ground, and the four searched beneath the forest with their Divine Sense.
• The group discovered countless corpse-water insects burrowing upward through layers of soil despite the absence of any tombs.

Qiu Lin’s attempt to escape a horde of zombies was cut off by a swarm of Corpsewater Insects, while a vast green cloud swept across the ghost domain and devoured yin beasts. Elsewhere, Li Yan fought a Blood-Eyed Toad whose body reflected most of his attacks.

• Qiu Lin stole a drop of corpse-qi essence from a tomb and fled after the zombies detected her, but Corpsewater Insects rose from the ground and surrounded her.
• Two Phantom Sect cultivators fled as a green cloud appeared, and the wolf-like yin beasts abandoned their pursuit to escape it.
• The younger Phantom Sect cultivator saw the cloud swallow the flying yin beasts that had injured him.
• Similar green-cloud attacks spread across the ghost domain, including the area occupied by Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Li Yan recognized the lingering Shattered Poison on the Blood-Eyed Toad as evidence that its stalactite trap had come from its warts.
• Li Yan pressed his attack on the Blood-Eyed Toad but discovered that its body reflected most of the force back at him.

Li Yan fought the Blood-Eyed Toad, a powerful venomous Demon Beast, but his relentless attacks could not overcome its defenses. The toad countered with a crushing blow protected by strange mucus, leaving Li Yan unable to penetrate its defenses or harm its soul.

• Li Yan battered the middle-aged man with physical attacks laced with Zhili Poison, but the man’s defenses kept the poison out.
• When Li Yan summoned the Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes, the man coated himself in corrosive white liquid and escaped, injuring Li Yan’s elbow.
• The man revealed his true form as the Blood-Eyed Toad and swallowed three green Pills to steady his battered body.
• Li Yan recognized the Blood-Eyed Toad and considered using a secret art, but the toad attacked from above with its colossal body.
• Li Yan blocked the toad’s fall with his twin brushes and hurled it away with Soul-Enticing Guidance Kill, but gray mucus repelled his poison and blocked the technique’s effect.

Li Yan fought the Blood-Eyed Toad to make the Shattered Poison devour its toxins, then considered killing it before agreeing to hear its offer. The Blood-Eyed Toad, who called himself Sima, offered Toyezi poison in exchange for Li Yan swearing to bring him a Polar Ice Heart within three hundred years.

• Li Yan and the Blood-Eyed Toad exchanged attacks and poisonous techniques, but neither could gain the upper hand.
• Li Yan revealed that he had been provoking the Blood-Eyed Toad to feed its poisons to the Shattered Poison, then prepared a soul technique to strike a fatal blow.
• The Blood-Eyed Toad sensed Li Yan's danger and proposed talking, while Li Yan asked to obtain its poisons.
• Li Yan changed his request to the Toyezi poison after the Blood-Eyed Toad guessed his intentions.
• Li Yan and the Blood-Eyed Toad identified themselves as cultivators from the lower realm, and the Blood-Eyed Toad said his surname was Sima.
• Sima offered Li Yan Toyezi poison if he swore to bring a Polar Ice Heart within three hundred years, promising two more poisons when Li Yan returned with it.

Li Yan negotiated with the Blood-Eyed Toad for Touyezi poison and a map to the Polar Ice Heart, then recognized that the marked location was the region of red lightning tied to his master’s past. Aboveground, Qin Mo and Jun Ze fought three powerful corpse ghosts after their connection to the Ghost Domain training grounds was severed.

• Li Yan rejected the Blood-Eyed Toad’s original terms and proposed swearing to search for the Polar Ice Heart without guaranteeing he would obtain it.
• The Blood-Eyed Toad accepted Li Yan’s proposal, gave him Touyezi poison and a jade slip map, and warned him about the danger of the marked region.
• Li Yan realized the map pointed to the region of red lightning where Dong Fuyi had once been trapped, and he considered whether the coincidence could signal a connection to the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.
• Qin Mo and Jun Ze found themselves cut off from the Ghost Domain training grounds as three Nether King Realm corpse ghosts attacked them.
• Jun Ze and Qin Mo resolved to hold off the corpse ghosts and sought an opportunity to kill one so they could break free and investigate what had happened inside.

Corpsewater bugs and awakened corpse ghosts overwhelmed the formations, forcing Chu Yinghong and the trapped cultivators to fight toward an escape route. Li Yan arrived as Chu Yinghong cleared a path for the Spirit Transformation cultivators, while Zhao Min’s group defended themselves until a powerful corpse ghost appeared nearby.

• The black-furred zombie and two other corpse ghosts released corpsewater bugs and used the zombie’s spreading fur to threaten Qin Mo and Jun Ze.
• Corpsewater bugs and frenzied corpse ghosts attacked cultivators and yin beasts across both formations, and Chu Yinghong entered the Spirit Transformation area to gather the disciples.
• Li Yan arrived, sensed the infestation near the Nascent Soul training grounds, and Chu Yinghong used a wide-ranging purple spell to clear a path toward the center.
• Corpse ghosts reappeared from underground, and a powerful corpse ghost broke through the outer formation, interrupting Chu Yinghong’s attack.
• Zhao Min’s group stopped in the forest, where Bai Rou deployed thirty puppets and Gong Chenying began setting up a formation while Zhao Min and Zi Kun cleared insects.
• A powerful corpse ghost roared nearby, and Zhao Min realized its aura had surpassed the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Li Yan reached Zhao Min and the other cultivators as corpsewater insects and corpse ghosts overwhelmed the region, then summoned survivors to gather while he confronted a powerful Nether King corpse ghost. The chapter left their battle underway, with Li Yan’s attacks hindered by the ghost’s corpse poison.

• A cyan figure called for all cultivators to gather within ten breaths as Gong Chenying and the others prepared to defend themselves.
• Li Yan found Zhao Min and the others, summoned nearby cultivators, and used Scattered Poison to clear space and slow the creatures emerging underground.
• Li Yan told the gathered Nascent Soul cultivators to hold their position while he went to intercept the approaching Nether King corpse ghost, and Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Zi Kun, and Bai Rou refused to hide in his spirit storage space.
• Li Yan and Chu Yinghong learned that each faced a powerful corpse ghost, and Chu Yinghong went to meet hers after organizing the Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators.
• Li Yan attacked the mud-covered corpse ghost with a powerful kick, but its foul, poisonous mud weakened his assault and interfered with his senses.

Li Yan drew cultivators from two sects into a defended area as corpse-water insects and corpse ghosts swarmed the swamp. Seventy-one gathered, and they organized their defenses while waiting for the senior Li Yan had promised would arrive.

• Li Yan fought a Void Refinement Realm zombie while corpse-water insects and corpse ghosts attacked him from every direction.
• Gong Chenying set up an array, and Li Yan cleared a safe path so nearby cultivators could reach it and recover.
• A Destruction Sect cultivator urged the defenders to rescue others, and the group grew to seventy-one cultivators, twelve of them seriously wounded.
• The attackers battered the cultivators’ separate arrays until the two sects’ disciples coordinated their defenses and attacks.
• Bai Rou deployed thirty puppets to protect two sides, while other cultivators used puppets, spirit beasts, gu insects, and poisonous insects against the swarms.
• The cultivators’ Divine Sense rapidly dwindled as corpse-water insects continued pouring in from the horizon.

Li Yan struggled to kill a Nether King realm zombie that hid among Corpsewater Bugs and grew stronger by devouring them, while Bai Rou helped the sect cultivators reinforce their defense. The chapter left Li Yan launching a concentrated soul attack as he stood atop the zombie’s corrosive yellow-water assault.

• Li Yan discovered that the zombie’s mutated soul resisted his soul technique, while the zombie used Corpsewater Bugs and corpse ghosts as cover and swallowed bugs to recover and increase its power.
• Bai Rou agreed to control up to thirty-five puppets after Zhao Min warned her not to reveal her full abilities, and cultivators from the Miesheng Sect, Phantom Sect, and Laojun Peak helped fund and organize the defenses.
• Li Yan judged that he could not escape through the formation’s exit while the zombie pursued him, so he considered how to counter its growing strength and the ghostly creatures surrounding it.
• The zombie spewed a wave of foul yellow water that swept toward Li Yan, and he vanished from his position and reappeared on its crest.
• Li Yan endured the water’s corrosion with his protective barrier and unleashed Soul-Piercing Sting with all his soul power concentrated into one needle-like strike.

Li Yan struck the Nether King Realm zombie with a devastating blow and killed him with the life-encroaching Withering art. He then charged toward Zhao Min and the other cultivators, where Zhao Min continued defending against the corpse-water insects with her demonic arts.

• Li Yan used the zombie’s misjudgment of his speed to land a hand-blade strike that shattered its shoulder and tore through its chest and back.
• The wounded zombie retreated into the corpse-water insects, while Li Yan vanished from its sight.
• The zombie realized Li Yan was fleeing toward the assembled Nascent Soul cultivators, but Withering’s life force poisoned its deathly body and killed it.
• Li Yan rushed through the insect clouds and corpse ghosts toward Zhao Min and the others.
• Zhao Min recalled most of her gu insects after heavy losses and held back the corpse-water insects with the Demon Heart Sword and her demonic arts.

Li Yan returned to Zhao Min’s group after killing the Underworld King Realm zombie and ordered everyone to withdraw so he could take them away. Before he could gather them, the ground collapsed into a black abyss and an unknown force dragged Li Yan, the cultivators, and Chu Yinghong downward, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Gong Chenying used the Red Whisk Crimson Dragon Spear and the Red Lotus Burning Flame Scripture to destroy approaching corpse ghosts, while Bai Rou coordinated her puppets and the other cultivators fought to maintain their defenses.
• Li Yan arrived beside Zhao Min’s group, and his magic power annihilated the surrounding corpse ghosts and corpse water insects as he told everyone to withdraw the formation.
• Li Yan checked that Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun were unharmed, but sensed a hidden force beneath the ground and struck toward it without effect.
• The ground collapsed into a huge black hole, and an immense force dragged the Nascent Soul cultivators, Li Yan, and Chu Yinghong downward.
• Li Yan halted the falling cultivators and rubble with his magic power, but a voice from the abyss declared that none of them would escape; dim blue light appeared, and the force pulled everyone down faster.

Li Yan discovered that the group’s fall through the bottomless pit was driven by an unknown yin-cold force, then used the Five Elements Chaotic Cloak and a burst of power to disrupt it and send the cultivators toward a ring of yellow light. As Li Yan reached the ring with Zhao Min and the others in tow, a voice threatened to kill them, while Chu Yinghong was also pulled away from her attempt to reach the ring.

• Li Yan’s spells and magical treasures failed to resist the pit’s pull, and his attempt to pierce the cave wall with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike only briefly disrupted the surrounding power.
• Li Yan warned Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun to gather around him if the pulling force vanished, and prepared to conserve his strength for the dangers ahead.
• Li Yan spotted a ring of yellow light around the cavern, sensed earth beyond it, and used his power to disrupt the laws around the falling cultivators and propel them toward the ring.
• Li Yan reached the yellow ring first while drawing the other cultivators with him, but a voice threatened that they and the group in another pit would die together.
• Chu Yinghong saw the yellow ring and charged toward it, but the pit’s pulling force surged and dragged her away from it.

Li Yan struggled against a hidden enemy’s suction force in the black hole, then used its diverted power to launch the Nascent Soul cultivators beyond the yellow halo. Exhausted and unable to escape himself, he fell toward the hole as he left their survival to them.

• Chu Yinghong resisted an unseen force pulling her toward the black hole, but the enemy dragged her down despite her efforts.
• Li Yan fought the same force as it intensified, while Zhao Min and the other cultivators watched from below.
• Li Yan realized the enemy had weakened the suction beneath the Nascent Soul cultivators to concentrate its power on him.
• Li Yan stopped resisting to make the enemy’s borrowed force recoil, then unleashed his remaining strength to fling the Nascent Soul cultivators through the yellow halo.
• With his power and body spent, Li Yan stored items in Tuban and fell helplessly toward the black hole.

Jun Ze and Qin Mo entered the repaired formation and found the trial grounds strewn with corpses, while Li Yan and Chu Yinghong had vanished. Elsewhere, the sect cultivators who escaped the black hole searched a desolate wilderness for Li Yan, but found no sign of him or the hole.

• Jun Ze and Qin Mo repaired the formation entrance and discovered both trial grounds covered in corpses, with no cultivators in sight.
• Jun Ze and Qin Mo investigated two enormous corpse-filled pits but found only earth and stone beneath them, then resumed searching for clues.
• The escaped cultivators reported finding no trace of Li Yan in the surrounding wilderness, where harsh winds and weakened Divine Sense hampered their search.
• The cultivators recalled how Li Yan failed to break through the yellow ring around the black hole before a force from below flung them all through it and into the wilderness.
• Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun searched for the vanished black hole and Li Yan, but found neither.

Zhao Min and the surviving cultivators searched for Li Yan but found no trace of the passage that had brought them underground, and they debated leaving to seek help. Meanwhile, the one-horned monster captured the unconscious Li Yan in the Netherworld, while Yunye complained that the attack had failed to kill all the Phantom Sect cultivators.

• The cultivators returned from their searches without finding Li Yan or the vanished black hole, and an Extinction Sect cultivator argued that the group should leave the frigid wasteland and find a way back to the sect.
• The Laojun Peak woman urged the Phantom Sect cultivators to prioritize survival and seek help, and Gong Chenying told the others they could leave while her group searched a few more days.
• The one-horned monster revealed that he had used the Lake of Reincarnation Mirror to open temporary passages into the Ghost Domain, then lifted the unconscious Li Yan from the lake and planned to make him pick Flowers of the Other Shore.
• Yunye complained to Beiyin that the attack had failed to kill the escaped Nascent Soul cultivators and had spared another Phantom Sect Void Refinement cultivator.
• Beiyin argued that the survivors were trapped within Yellow Springs City and could be killed there, and he told Yunye that the Phantom Sect had suffered heavier losses overall.

The Netherworld Emperor revealed that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect had paid the Netherworld to attack elite disciples of the Phantom Sect and Extinction Sect, then ordered Yellow Springs City to hunt down surviving Nascent Soul cultivators. Li Yan woke in a prison on the first level of Asura Prison, surrounded by ghosts, and tried to determine where he had ended up.

• The Yin-Yang Chaos Sect negotiated with the Netherworld to kill or capture more than a hundred disciples training in two Ghost Domains, and the Netherworld agreed after receiving valuable treasures.
• The Netherworld Emperor ordered Gui Dang to have every sect in Yellow Springs City find the surviving Nascent Soul cultivators, offering rewards for killing or capturing them.
• Yun Ye asked to take the Phantom Sect Void Refinement cultivator from Asura Prison, but the Netherworld Emperor refused and continued using him to pick Flowers of the Other Shore.
• Yun Ye realized that the Netherworld Emperor had likely arranged for the Nascent Soul cultivators to survive so they could be captured and brought into Asura Prison.
• Li Yan woke in a freezing, barred prison cell, saw two ghost souls and a snake-headed Yaksha, and wondered which part of the Ghost Domain he was in.

After being dragged through a bottomless black hole into the Netherworld, Li Yan woke in Shura prison with his cultivation crippled and his body gravely injured. Jailer Fan Nan warned him to work after three days, leaving Li Yan trapped in his cell and struggling to understand how he had survived.

• Li Yan recalled falling into the black hole after sending Zhao Min and the others to safety, then losing consciousness amid crushing pressure.
• Li Yan woke to find that he could no longer sense spiritual power or Divine Sense, while Fan Nan explained that his eight extraordinary meridians had been severed and a Scarlet Death Restriction planted in him.
• Fan Nan identified the prison as the first level of Shura prison in the Netherworld and warned Li Yan to obey, threatening him with further torment if he resisted or killed himself.
• Fan Nan struck Li Yan with an iron chain, worsening his injuries, then left with two white-clothed hanging ghosts and shut the cell door.
• Li Yan examined the empty prison cells and sensed dangerous restrictions along the railings and walls as he considered how the black hole had brought him to the Netherworld.