Chapter Summaries

Trapped in the Netherworld and unable to break the Blood-Colored Death Restriction by ordinary means, Li Yan remembered the Qiongqi Purgatory Art’s Prison Break secret art as a possible solution. He began testing the technique during a mission, but Fa Nan remained unaware of his plan.

• Li Yan concluded that his mana attacks had made no progress and feared the Nether Emperor would discover his hidden cultivation.
• As he mourned the family and companions he might never see again, Li Yan recalled A-Ying and realized he could try the Prison Break secret art.
• Li Yan decided to cultivate Prison Break, which the Tianli Clan inheritance described as a powerful way to shatter restrictions.
• Li Yan assumed a strange posture and began practicing the secret art, while his bones rumbled faintly.
• Fa Nan inspected Li Yan’s latest mission results, saw that he had brought back three Other Shore Flowers, and ordered him to withdraw.

Li Yan risked a longer mission to cultivate the prison break technique while keeping Buluo alive, but his attempt to manifest its Qiongqi phantom caused his body to tear apart. The chapter left him in agony as two fierce ghosts searched the twisted zone for him and Buluo.

• Buluo urged Li Yan to let him gather the Flowers of the Other Shore, but Li Yan insisted that he stay in the cell with him.
• Li Yan secretly managed how much lifespan the flowers consumed and decided to stake everything on a concentrated attempt to cultivate prison break.
• Li Yan negotiated twenty-two days for his next mission and brought Buluo to the Ghost Thorn mountain, leaving him in a sheltered spot while he focused on cultivation.
• When Li Yan and Buluo failed to return on time, two fierce ghosts entered the twisted zone to search for them, while Buluo feared Li Yan had been trapped in the River of Netherfall.
• Li Yan forced the prison break technique to form Qiongqi over his body, but its head would not emerge, and the pressure burst veins through his skin as his body strained to heal.

Li Yan used the two Ghost Officers’ attacks to break through the Blood-Red Death Seal and complete the foundational stage of the prison-breaking art. After killing them and absorbing their power, he regained control of his cultivation and prepared to act in the distorted region.

• Two Ghost Officers found Li Yan cultivating near the Netherfall River and realized he was trying to break through the Blood-Red Death Seal.
• The Ghost Officers attacked Li Yan repeatedly, shattering his defenses and leaving him badly injured as Buluo rushed toward the battle.
• A Qiongqi phantom appeared across Li Yan’s body, and his Divine Sense and cultivation returned as he used the Ghost Officers’ attacks to complete his breakthrough.
• Li Yan killed the two Ghost Officers and destroyed their ghost souls before they could escape and expose him.
• After taking a medicinal pill, Li Yan confirmed that the restraints on his Nascent Soul and sea of consciousness had vanished, restoring his cultivation to his control.

Li Yan rescued Buluo on Ghost Thorn Mountain, removed the blood-colored death restriction, and repaired his meridians. Buluo regained much of his cultivation, while Li Yan planned for him to recover and advance as they continued searching for a way out of the Netherworld.

• Li Yan escaped the fierce ghosts and found Buluo crawling toward him across Ghost Thorn Mountain.
• Li Yan broke the blood-colored restriction on Buluo and reconnected his severed meridians, leaving Buluo unconscious during the treatment.
• Buluo awoke with spiritual power and Divine Sense restored, then carefully inspected his body at Li Yan's urging.
• Buluo tested his recovered strength by cutting through a Ghost Thorn and flying above the mountain.
• Buluo told Li Yan that he had nearly three hundred years of lifespan left and roughly sixty to seventy percent of his former combat strength.
• Li Yan told Buluo to recover in the Spirit Storage Space and aim for the late Nascent Soul stage, while warning that they still had to plan carefully to escape the Netherworld.

Li Yan decided to investigate how the blood-colored death restriction’s collapse might alert Fan Nan and the other ghost creatures while avoiding a fight. He concealed the weakened Buluo in a conjured space with medicinal pills, and Buluo prepared to recover while offering to risk his life if Li Yan needed help.

• Li Yan rejected Buluo’s offer to fight and explained that he would investigate whether the ghost creatures could sense the blood-colored death restriction’s collapse.
• Li Yan told Buluo that his depleted lifespan and lack of magic treasures left him too weak to fight, then sent him into a conjured space.
• Li Yan gave Buluo six fifth-grade Spirit Sea Reversion Pills and told him to cultivate and recover.
• Buluo thanked Li Yan and asked him to release him if even a brief sacrifice could help Li Yan survive.
• Li Yan agreed, left Buluo to recover, and vanished to continue his investigation.

After Li Yan killed two ghosts and could no longer return to prison, Fa Nan learned that Li Yan, Bu Luo, and the Blood-Glutton Two Ghosts had failed to come back. Fa Nan discovered that the two ghosts’ names had vanished from the records and went to investigate the Netherfall River himself.

• Fa Nan captured a message from Chi Han, who reported that Li Yan, Bu Luo, and the Blood-Glutton Two Ghosts had not returned and that he planned to investigate the Netherfall River.
• Fa Nan checked the prison’s records and learned that the Blood-Glutton Two Ghosts’ names had disappeared.
• Fa Nan berated Chi Han and ordered him to investigate the disappearance within half a day without reporting rumors.
• Chi Han took forty percent of the prison’s manpower with him, and Fa Nan decided to investigate the Netherfall River personally because the warden had taken an interest in Li Yan.

Fan Nan flew toward the place where Li Yan had entered the twisted zone while the chapter followed Qiu Ling and the cultivators of the Extinction Sect and Phantom Sect as they struggled through a deadly region of flying stones. The group kept advancing under a mobile formation, and the chapter left them searching for a way to make it safer and more effective.

• Fan Nan instructed the two White Impermanences to guard the prison, then flew toward the River of Nether Oblivion to search near Li Yan’s last known location.
• Qiu Ling nearly lost the formation position when a mountain-sized boulder struck, but Zi Kun punched it away and Senior Brother Feng took over for her.
• Qiu Ling returned to the ancient ape puppet to recover, while the cultivators relied on its powerful defenses and the formation to endure the flying stones.
• Zhao Min and the other three had reunited with the main group after searching for more than a month, and their return without losing anyone astonished the cultivators.
• The two sects advanced deeper into the flying-stone region, where mounting injuries and exhaustion forced them to abandon separate defenses and form a joint mobile formation.
• The cultivators discussed how to improve their mobile formation, since moving formations could develop vulnerabilities.

Bai Rou’s mobile formation helped the cultivators of the two sects survive the flying-stone region, while Fa Nan searched the River of Netherfall and followed traces through the Ghostthorn Mountains. Li Yan remained concealed and watched the searchers, then sensed a familiar figure approaching as he considered capturing the deputy jailer.

• Bai Rou revealed a puppet-centered defensive formation, and the cultivators of the two sects used high-grade spirit stones to strengthen it while crossing the flying-stone region.
• Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, and Zi Kun showed how effectively the body cultivators could hold the formation and clear paths through the stones.
• Fa Nan searched along the River of Netherfall, found broken Ghostthorn spikes and signs of someone’s presence, and followed the trail toward the riverbank.
• Fa Nan examined a fallen Ghostthorn tree but found no clear evidence of a battle, then returned toward a patch of unpicked Other Shore Flowers.
• Li Yan watched the searching ghosts from concealment, identified one powerful ghost as likely Chi Han, and sensed a familiar figure approaching.

Li Yan trapped Fan Nan in a looping illusion while concealing his own role, and Fan Nan struggled to escape and contact others. Fan Nan remained confident that the Warden would find him if he stayed missing too long.

• Li Yan abandoned his plan to target Chi Han and followed Fan Nan, leaving traces and poison to set up a sneak attack.
• Fan Nan followed the broken Ghostthorn spikes, then realized the scenery repeated and the Netherfall River had vanished from sight and Divine Sense.
• Fan Nan revealed himself and searched for a barrier, but his attacks and the Ten Thousand Ghosts Red Wind technique failed to alter the looping landscape.
• Fan Nan sent a transmission talisman, but a force swallowed it and severed his connection to it.
• Fan Nan struck at the empty air without effect and concluded that the Warden would find him if he remained missing too long.

Fa Nan searched for a weakness in the restriction on Ghost Thorn Mountain, but Li Yan lured him into triggering it and sent him through to the Yang Realm. Li Yan returned to his concealed array while Fa Nan found himself in a scorching desert beneath five shining rings.

• Fa Nan scattered emerald-green points of light with his spell to sense the space around Ghost Thorn Mountain.
• Fa Nan detected a subtle fluctuation between two Ghost Thorn plants and attacked it with his trident.
• Li Yan manipulated the restriction’s forces, causing Fa Nan to be pulled away when he charged forward.
• Li Yan removed his array flags, evaded approaching vicious ghosts, crossed the River of Nether Oblivion, and returned to his grand array.
• Li Yan left a duplicate to guard the array while Fa Nan awoke in the Yang Realm, surrounded by dense fire spiritual energy.

Li Yan captured Fan Nan by luring him through a carefully staged trap into Tuban, then subdued him with the power of that world. He moved the ghost to a safe, cold location and began extracting information through a painful soul technique, hoping Fan Nan would survive.

• Fan Nan was drawn through Li Yan’s Ghost Trail formation and swept into Tuban when Li Yan released the restrictions and used his Divine Sense.
• Li Yan knocked Fan Nan unconscious with Tuban’s overwhelming power before Fan Nan could see him.
• Li Yan considered using Soul Search but feared it would kill Fan Nan because of the different laws governing the Yin and Yang Worlds.
• Li Yan moved Fan Nan from the scorching western desert to the Snow Mosquito Clan’s mountain cave and sealed his senses and movement with runes.
• Li Yan pierced Fan Nan’s skull with a red, hook-shaped spike and began pulling at his soul, causing Fan Nan to convulse in agony.

Li Yan extracted and recombined most of Fa Nan’s souls and spirits, leaving him lucid enough to answer questions but too muddled to lie. Fa Nan explained Shura Hell’s hierarchy and routes, including the guarded passages to Fengdu City and Yellow Springs City, while the River of Nether Oblivion remained only a dangerous legend.

• Li Yan extracted Fa Nan’s three souls and five spirits, bound them with runes, and recombined them into a vacant phantom while leaving two spirits in Fa Nan’s body.
• Li Yan questioned Fa Nan and learned that the Scarlet Death Restriction contained no hidden entrance because an imprint could trigger backlash near the River of Nether Oblivion.
• Fa Nan described the Netherworld’s hierarchy, the roles of Fengdu City and Yellow Springs City, and the rules governing travel and trade between them.
• Li Yan learned that the passages to Fengdu City and Yellow Springs City lay inside Fallen Soul Mountain, fifty thousand li from the prison, and were guarded by a rotating Nether Emperor.
• Fa Nan said rumors offered no other known way out of the Netherworld, while the River of Nether Oblivion remained perilous and mysterious even to powerful ghost cultivators.

Li Yan questioned Fan Nan about Yellow Springs City and Shura prison, learning that escape would be difficult because powerful Nether Emperors could quickly reinforce the prison. He discovered that Ye Luo had personally dragged him and the others into the Netherworld to capture cultivators from the Phantom Sect and the Miesheng Sect, but Fan Nan did not know why.

• Li Yan learned that Fan Nan had already used his sole annual opportunity to visit Yellow Springs City and that reaching it would require special permission or persuading a Nether Emperor.
• Fan Nan explained that Ye Luo was the prison’s strongest being, that several powerful Nether Emperors and Nether Kings could respond quickly, and that the guards deliberately encouraged prisoners to gather misleading escape information.
• Li Yan learned that Yellow Springs City was a restricted realm linked to the Yang Realm, and that ordinary beings could not use its soul-hooking emissaries’ passage.
• Li Yan realized Chi Han might return soon and expose Fan Nan’s disappearance, so he had his clone watch the search near the Netherfall River.
• Fan Nan revealed that Ye Luo had personally brought Li Yan and the others into the Netherworld to capture cultivators from the Phantom Sect and the Miesheng Sect, though Fan Nan did not know the reason.
• Li Yan questioned Fan Nan about Ye Luo’s ability to drag people across the realms, but Fan Nan gave no answer.

Li Yan learned that Zhao Min and the others had fled into the perilous region around Yellow Springs City, where Body Integration ghost cultivators were searching for them, and that Chu Yinghong and the Spirit Transformation cultivators had died in the bottomless black hole. He disguised himself as Fan Nan to escape detection, but remained trapped in the underground prison with Ye Luo’s arrival looming.

• Fan Nan told Li Yan that Zhao Min and the other Nascent Soul cultivators had evaded capture by fleeing into the deadly region near Yellow Springs City, prompting the Ghost Sect to send Body Integration cultivators after them.
• Fan Nan revealed that Chu Yinghong and all the Spirit Transformation cultivators she carried had perished in the bottomless black hole after Ye Luo intervened.
• After learning from his clone that the ghosts were preparing to leave, Li Yan possessed Fan Nan’s soul, emerged from Tuban, and used his clone to impersonate Fan Nan while carrying Li Yan away.
• Li Yan ordered a fierce ghost to summon Chi Han, then departed while claiming that Buluo was dead and that he needed to take Li Yan back for interrogation.
• Chi Han returned to find that Fan Nan had taken Li Yan into the underground prison, but the entrance restrictions prevented him from following.
• Li Yan hid alone in the underground prison and worried that Chi Han would discover his clone or that Ye Luo would arrive before he found a way out.

Li Yan disguised himself as Fan Nan and lured Chihan into Tuban, then questioned him about the Underworld and Underworld Emperor Yeluo. Chihan’s answers revealed that he had been sent to watch for Li Yan by another powerful Underworld Emperor on the first level of Shura Hell.

• Li Yan used illusion poison and a staged Soul Search to make Chihan rush into the dungeon, where Li Yan knocked him into Tuban.
• Li Yan questioned Chihan about routes to the Yang Realm, Fengdu City, Yellow Springs City, and Yeluo’s order to attack the two sects’ cultivators.
• Li Yan realized Chihan did not know who had issued the order attributed to the Underworld Emperor.
• Li Yan learned that Chihan was Fan Nan’s deputy warden to keep him in check and served another powerful Underworld Emperor on the first level of Shura Hell.
• Chihan revealed that the other Underworld Emperor had ordered him to watch for a cultivator named Li Yan.

Li Yan questioned Chi Han and learned that a Yang Realm cultivator had hired the Netherworld to attack the Wangliang Sect and the Life Extinction Sect, while another demand specifically called for Wangliang Sect cultivators to be killed. Li Yan suspected the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect was behind the assault, but he still needed to return to the Wangliang Sect and verify his theory.

• Li Yan learned that a Yang Realm cultivator had asked an Underworld Sovereign to eliminate both sects’ disciples during their Ghost Domain training, and that Ye Luo had carried out the attack using the Lake of Rebirth.
• Li Yan questioned Chi Han about Zhao Min and the other Nascent Soul Cultivators, learning that they had not yet been found and that Ye Luo wanted them captured alive if possible.
• Chi Han revealed that the other party had demanded the deaths of as many Wangliang Sect cultivators as possible, prompting Li Yan to reconsider who the enemy had truly targeted.
• Li Yan connected the demand to the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, which had lost two Void Refinement cultivators and three Spirit Transformation disciples, including people Li Yan had killed.
• Li Yan concluded that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect might have arranged the covert attack as revenge, but resolved to investigate and confirm his suspicion after returning to the Wangliang Sect.

Li Yan escaped the prison under Chihan’s identity and headed toward Soul-Falling Mountain, while news reached Wei Zhongran and Li Zhaoyan that the Ghost Domain trial had ended in disaster and many participants were missing. The chapter left Li Zhaoyan stunned by the news that her father and two mothers had vanished.

• Li Yan disguised himself as Chihan, sealed the dungeon, refined a Snow Mosquito in the distorted region, and flew toward Soul-Falling Mountain.
• Su Changyang told Wei Zhongran that the Ghost Domain trial had left many participants missing and that the sects suspected surviving Nascent Soul cultivators had been captured.
• Wei Zhongran learned that Li Yan’s fate could not be divined because he had entered the true Netherworld underworld, but he hoped Li Yan and Li Zhaoyan were among the survivors.
• Wei Zhongran told Li Zhaoyan what had happened, and she froze after learning that her father and two mothers had vanished.

Li Yan disguised himself as Chi Han and planted a concealed Snow Mosquito near Soulfall Mountain. Nether Emperor Qing Ye detected the restriction and appeared at the site to investigate.

• Li Yan stopped twenty thousand li from Soulfall Mountain, hid a restriction underground, and left the Snow Mosquito inside it.
• Li Yan flew away while communicating with the Snow Mosquito through their minds.
• Qing Ye completed a cultivation cycle and inspected the area around Soulfall Mountain with his Divine Sense.
• Qing Ye sensed a faint living aura from a concealed creature and suspected an incubating Demon Beast egg.
• Qing Ye appeared beside the restriction without alerting the passing ghosts.

Li Yan used the Snow Mosquito and a Nether Oblivion River-treated other shore flower to lure Qing Ye away from Soulfall Mountain and prepared to infiltrate it. The trap left Qing Ye writhing in agony as the Snow Mosquito died, while Li Yan made his move toward the mountain’s guarded paths.

• Qing Ye shattered the crystalline restraint underground and found a transparent Snow Mosquito beside rare other shore flowers, including one about fourteen hundred years old.
• Qing Ye picked the surviving flower, triggering a severe loss of nether lifespan and unbearable pain; his surging aura caused the Snow Mosquito to explode into icy mist.
• Li Yan waited ten thousand li from Soulfall Mountain, reviewing the strict controls on the Fengdu and Yellow Springs paths and preparing to exploit the distraction.
• Li Yan recalled his plan to use the Snow Mosquito as bait and the treated other shore flower as a trap, then set out with only a few breaths to reach the mountain unnoticed.
• Inside Soulfall Mountain, a vast Ghost Market held two guarded gray vortices: ghosts passed through one, while the other remained empty and closely watched.

Li Yan escaped through the gray vortex into a palace guarded by four human cultivators, while Qing Ye failed to learn what had happened to Snow Mosquito and recovered the Other Shore Flower. The chapter left Li Yan facing the four cultivators and wary that someone might follow him through the mirror.

• Li Yan pushed his cultivation and secret arts to their limits, slipped past the ghosts, and entered the gray vortex.
• Qing Ye awoke underground after Snow Mosquito self-destructed, but found no soul fragments to question.
• Qing Ye ordered a shriveled ghost to retrieve the Other Shore Flower and then speculated about how it had been preserved.
• Li Yan emerged from a mirror in a palace, where four black-robed human cultivators recognized him as Lord Chi Han.
• Li Yan assessed the four cultivators as Nascent Soul Realm experts and stayed alert to the passage back to Asura Prison.