Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and the Ninth Squad endured dangerous missions against the Devil Race, then fought foreign cultivators in a forest with the help of Li Yan’s Snow Mosquito King. After the battle, the squad regrouped with several members injured, while Li Yan’s unusual treasures earned him fresh respect.

• Over a month and a half of missions, Bai Rou kept the Ninth Squad at twenty members, and one operation against a Devil Race stronghold left three cultivators dead and one gravely wounded.
• Li Yan recalled escaping the stronghold’s formation-triggered attack with the Cloud-Piercing Willow while a devil commander pursued the squad through the night.
• In a forest battle, Li Yan watched as his Snow Mosquito King froze a foreign cultivator with swords formed from thirty thousand Snow Mosquitoes.
• After Li Yan urged him to finish the fight, the Snow Mosquito King shattered the frozen opponent, took his Storage Pouch, and flew to attack another battle.
• Bai Rou’s three puppets and the rest of the squad won their fights, and the twenty members gathered again with three cultivators badly injured.
• Chu Weixiong praised Li Yan’s demon beast, while the others acknowledged his powerful treasures and the danger posed by careless underestimation of their enemies.

After a battle, Li Yan considered how the snow mosquitoes were adapting to the laws outside the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower and realized their cold poison remained potent. He left with the party, while a red-faced old man hid his suspicion about the mosquitoes’ origin and Bai Rou worried over Li Yan’s reaction to her ape puppets.

• Li Yan dismissed praise for his battle and urged the party to leave before others arrived, while noticing the red-faced old man react to mention of the snow mosquitoes’ cold poison.
• Li Yan recalled that the snow mosquitoes’ soul aura had weakened after leaving the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower, but concluded their souls were adapting to Tuban’s laws and their cold poison remained powerful.
• Li Yan recognized that the red-faced old man had likely visited the tower, while the old man recalled surviving its snowfield and decided to keep his suspicions about Li Yan’s mosquitoes secret.
• The party departed on the Cloud-Piercing Willow, and Bai Rou blushed when she mistook Li Yan’s passing glance for attention.
• Li Yan remembered Bai Rou’s three long-armed giant ape puppets and understood she had modeled them on the Thousand-Net Ancient Ape she had once kept.

Tutai met with the Great Master, Sixth Master, and Eleventh Master to share reports about a secret realm allied with the four great sects. The possibility that it held fifth-rank Demon Beasts threatened the Devil Race’s plans, so Tutai sought the Great Master’s help in deciding how to proceed.

• Bai Rou controlled her three powerful puppets while Li Yan assessed their strength and the strain they placed on her.
• Tutai summoned the three masters to the Taixuan Sect’s abandoned headquarters and told them about the secret realm’s fifteen-year harvest.
• The Eleventh Master recognized that the realm’s ancient Demon Beasts might have survived the catastrophe caused by the Artifact Spirit.
• The Great Master asked about the Five Elements Dao-Evil Bead, but Tutai had no information about it.
• Tutai estimated that the secret realm held no more than two fifth-rank Demon Beasts and explained how their presence could overturn the Devil Race’s advantage.
• Tutai asked the three masters to discuss their next attack, hoping the Great Master would help secure victory.

Tu Tai and Great Master planned an assault on the human defenses to find the route into the Yin Demon Cliff rift, and their discussion of the Wheel of Life and Death startled Great Master and the other elders. Back at Windcool Mountain, Li Yan was summoned to Wei Zhongran's cave, where he met Elder Chi Gong and Bai Rou, but Wei Zhongran had not yet revealed why they were gathered.

• Tu Tai explained that the Devil Race had only a Little World-Breaking Pearl because it could no longer refine the original, and he reported that the route into the Yin Demon Cliff rift was likely at Demon-Swallowing Ridge or Sword-Subduing Abyss.
• Tu Tai and Great Master agreed to begin a formal offensive within ten days after verifying their intelligence, and Tu Tai mentioned the Wheel of Life and Death, making Great Master and the other elders react in alarm.
• Li Yan returned to Windcool Mountain, received Wei Zhongran's voice transmission, and went directly to his master's cave dwelling.
• Li Yan found Wei Zhongran with Bai Rou and Elder Chi Gong, who remarked on Li Yan's ordinary looks before Wei Zhongran introduced him.
• Wei Zhongran told Li Yan that his squad's missions had ranked near the top in completion, while Li Yan wondered why he had been summoned.

Wei Zhongran and Elder Chigong assigned Li Yan and Bai Rou a covert mission to rescue two Luoshu Lake disciples trapped in Devil Race territory, hoping to secure the aid of a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator and his allies. Li Yan and Bai Rou understood the mission’s risks and were told to choose three trusted members of the Ninth Squad.

• Wei Zhongran praised Li Yan and Bai Rou’s squad, while Elder Chigong teased Bai Rou about how often she mentioned Li Yan.
• Wei Zhongran explained that the elders had selected Li Yan and Bai Rou for a highly sensitive mission and let them choose three trusted squadmates.
• Elder Chigong said they had to retrieve two Luoshu Lake disciples held in Zhouyang Town, whose rescue could bring a Nascent Soul expert and his allies into the war.
• Bai Rou and Li Yan asked about the disciples’ cultivation and why they could not escape on their own, and Wei Zhongran explained the danger of Devil Race surveillance and restrictions.
• Li Yan inferred that the group would have to kill the two Devil cultivators escorting the disciples and disguise themselves as scouts on the return journey.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou recognized the severe dangers of crossing enemy territory, but the elders had chosen them because the mission was vital and they trusted their squad’s record.

Li Yan and Bai Rou received an urgent mission to find and rescue two Luoshu Lake disciples embedded with Devil cultivators near Zhouyang Town. After questioning the sparse intelligence, they chose three Ninth Squad members to join them, and Li Yan explained how each would contribute.

• Wei Zhongran gave Li Yan images of the two missing disciples and described their uncertain patrol schedule, likely route, and the token that would prove the rescuers’ identities.
• Li Yan asked nine questions about the squad, its guards, and the captives’ restrictions, then privately considered how far he might search using his Divine Sense.
• Wei Zhongran handed Li Yan a heavy iron scroll bearing the character “Yu” and an image of a lake.
• Bai Rou and Li Yan selected Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu to join the mission.
• Li Yan explained that Hu Xiaowang specialized in defense, Yan Feijun in concealment and infiltration, and Sun Guoshu in intelligence gathering and survival.

Li Yan and Bai Rou were assigned to a secret mission with Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu to retrieve two Luo Book Lake disciples from the Devil Race. Wei Zhongran privately warned Li Yan to protect the mission’s secrecy and laid out a lethal last resort, then the team was offered rewards to secure their cooperation before setting out.

• Wei Zhongran and Elder Chigong approved Li Yan and Bai Rou’s choice of Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu for the mission.
• After Bai Rou and Elder Chigong left, Wei Zhongran secretly told Li Yan to bring the two Luo Book Lake disciples back or kill them and disguise their deaths; he also ordered Li Yan to keep the mission’s true purpose concealed.
• Wei Zhongran and Elder Chigong summoned Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu, warned them that the mission had to be completed within fifteen days, and threatened severe punishment for failure.
• Elder Chigong promised Hu Xiaowang and Yan Feijun cultivation techniques and a chance to become disciples under an elder, while Wei Zhongran offered Sun Guoshu a chance to enter the outer sect if he returned safely.

Wei Zhongran offered Sun Guoshu entry into the Phantom Sect’s outer sect if he completed the mission, then appointed Li Yan to lead the group departing to find two informants among the Devil Race. After the group left, Wei Zhongran arranged backup, while Li Yan discovered that the mission jade slip had been altered to conceal the targets’ location.

• Sun Guoshu accepted Wei Zhongran’s offer of outer sect disciple status, unaware that Wei Zhongran had placed a lethal restriction inside him.
• Wei Zhongran appointed Li Yan as mission captain, and Bai Rou handed him a jade slip and a small iron scroll.
• Li Yan led Bai Rou, Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu away on the Cloud-Piercing Willow.
• Wei Zhongran told Elder Chi that Fellow Daoist Feng was secretly protecting the group and ordered another team to scout the Devil Race army as backup.
• Li Yan explained that the mission was to find two informants among the Devil Race and bring them back, then discovered the jade slip named the targets but concealed their location.

Li Yan revealed that the squad's destination was Zhouyang Town on the edge of the Devil Race army and prepared the group to travel there in secret. As they began their dangerous journey, he assigned Sun Guoshu to scout ahead, showing that he trusted abilities Sun Guoshu usually concealed.

• After flying a little over a thousand li, Li Yan's group landed in a mountain hollow to avoid enemy scouts.
• Li Yan told Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu that their destination was Zhouyang Town at the edge of the Devil Race army, alarming them with the danger of the mission.
• Li Yan explained that stealthy travel would take about three days and that the group had at most nine days to complete its task and return.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou changed into ordinary clothes, while Yan Feijun used a concealment method and offered to hide the group with an array.
• Li Yan assigned Sun Guoshu to scout ahead, and Hu Xiaowang questioned the choice before Li Yan said Sun Guoshu was more capable than he appeared.

Li Yan tested Sun Guoshu’s scouting abilities, and the squad relied on his danger sense to evade several searches while traveling around the battlefield. On the second night, a Devil Race Gold Core cultivator attacked them with Divine Sense, but a Windcool Mountain Gold Core cultivator intervened and protected the squad, while Li Yan’s concealment surprised both Gold Core cultivators.

• Li Yan sent Sun Guoshu ahead to scout, and Sun Guoshu demonstrated his skill at hiding his aura, detecting danger, and warning the squad.
• The group traveled more than a thousand li through the forests and detoured west around the main battlefield, avoiding several Divine Sense searches.
• When Yan Feijun asked about his abilities, Sun Guoshu explained that repeated brushes with death had given him an instinctive warning of danger.
• On the second night, two powerful Divine Senses found the squad, and a Devil Race Gold Core cultivator attacked Bai Rou and the others.
• A Windcool Mountain Gold Core cultivator intercepted the attack, and Li Yan reappeared after escaping the Devil Race cultivator’s Divine Sense with Night Concealment.

Li Yan led his group westward to escape a Devil Race pursuit while a Fengliang Mountain Golden Core Realm cultivator held off their enemy. As the pursuers closed in and the group debated whether to fight, Li Yan still had to find a way to reach their mission target.

• Li Yan rescued Bai Rou and the others from a Golden Core Realm cultivator’s attack and used the Cloud-Piercing Willow to carry them and the injured Sun Guoshu away.
• A Fengliang Mountain Golden Core Realm cultivator intercepted the Devil Race cultivator and gave Li Yan’s group time to flee west, while an eight-person Devil Race squad pursued them.
• Li Yan chose the western route to avoid revealing their mission, though the detour cost them time and the pursuers used a secret technique to keep pace.
• After traveling about a thousand miles, Li Yan told the group that they still needed to escape the pursuers’ Divine Sense range but were moving farther from their target.
• Yan Feijun suggested killing the eight pursuers, but Hu Xiaowang warned that the enemy included three false Golden Core cultivators, while Sun Guoshu considered escaping on his own.
• The two Devil Race cultivators on the gray flying wardrobe used iron rings and chains to draw up black liquid, repeatedly boosting the wardrobe’s speed.

Li Yan and the others fled in the Cloud-Piercing Willow while Wuyuan and Gefeng burned through their devil origin power to keep pursuing them. When the pursuers began catching up, Li Yan proposed splitting the group in a forest ambush, with him drawing two Devil Race cultivators away alone.

• Wuyuan and Gefeng used their devil origin power to drive their flying devil cabinet after Li Yan's group, while Wang Changkun reported that the Cloud-Piercing Willow had slowed.
• Li Yan concluded that the Golden Core Realm devil cultivator could not investigate them and that the pursuing squad of eight was their immediate threat.
• Li Yan proposed abandoning the westward flight and entering the forest, where he would lure away two Devil Race cultivators while the others fought the remaining pursuers.
• Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, Bai Rou, and the others challenged Li Yan's plan and asked how he could make the pursuers split up.
• Li Yan said Yan Feijun could prepare concealment and ambush formations, and explained that the others would need to trust him to draw the two devil cultivators away.

Li Yan persuaded the others to follow his plan to split the pursuers, with him drawing away two Devil Race cultivators while the rest fought the six foreign cultivators. As Wuyuan and Gefeng closed in, they mistook the group's descent and exhausted appearance for weakness, setting up the ambush.

• Li Yan assured Hu Xiaowang and Bai Rou that he could lure away two Devil Race cultivators and hold them off, while Bai Rou remained with the main fighting force.
• Bai Rou considered using Elder Chigong's golden stone to protect Li Yan if he faced danger, then blushed at the thought.
• Wuyuan and Gefeng noticed that Li Yan's group had slowed and decided to spend more Devil Origin Power to catch up, while Wang Changkun warned that the humans might be setting a trap.
• Li Yan and the others descended into a forest and let their restriction vanish, appearing exhausted to the pursuers.
• Wuyuan and Gefeng mistook the group's apparent fatigue for weakness and argued over who would claim Bai Rou after capturing her.

Wu Yuan and Ge Feng pursued Li Yan and the four cultivators who had split from him, but Yan Feijun’s concealment formation hid the group from their senses. Wu Yuan suddenly insisted on chasing Li Yan himself, and his clash with Ge Feng over the pursuit left the reason for his change of heart unresolved.

• Wu Yuan ordered Wang Changkun to send two people after Li Yan while he and Ge Feng searched for the four cultivators, but they discovered that the group had disappeared inside a concealment formation.
• Bai Rou, Yan Feijun, Hu Xiaowang, and Sun Guoshu watched from the forest and worried that Li Yan might have used them as bait, though Bai Rou trusted him.
• Wu Yuan’s expression changed as he sensed something connected to Li Yan, and he abruptly ordered Ge Feng and Wang Changkun to deal with the four while he pursued Li Yan alone.
• Wang Changkun and the other foreign-domain cultivators sensed nothing unusual about Li Yan, while Ge Feng challenged Wu Yuan’s decision to pursue him personally.
• Wu Yuan argued that he and Ge Feng should not both leave the four cultivators unattended, but Ge Feng dismissed the danger and pressed his objection.

Wu Yuan and Ge Feng pursued Li Yan, each scheming to claim the devil core and eventually kill the other. Li Yan lured them away from Bai Rou’s group and feigned exhaustion, while the group prepared an ambush; the two pursuers neared the rocks where Li Yan had fallen.

• Wang Changkun left to confront the human cultivators, while Wu Yuan and Ge Feng pursued Li Yan and agreed to split the treasure they expected to take from him.
• Wu Yuan claimed he had a Devil-Transforming Yin-Yang Box, and Ge Feng coveted both the box and the treasure while Wu Yuan secretly planned to kill him.
• Li Yan used the devil core from Sorrow Spirit Manor to attract the pursuers and pretended his spiritual power was failing so he could draw them away from Bai Rou and the others.
• Bai Rou urged Yan Feijun, Hu Xiaowang, and Sun Guoshu to ambush the pursuers and strike Wang Changkun first once the chance arose.
• Li Yan plunged toward a pile of rocks, and Ge Feng urged Wu Yuan to hurry after him while keeping his guard up against Wu Yuan.

Li Yan concealed his strength and used Ge Feng and Wu Yuan’s greed for the Devil Core to turn their attacks against each other. After Ge Feng was gravely injured, Li Yan vanished, leaving Wu Yuan to face him alone.

• Wu Yuan moved in close to Ge Feng while both approached Li Yan, planning to strike after Ge Feng killed him.
• Ge Feng and Wu Yuan attacked Li Yan at the same time, but Li Yan blocked Ge Feng’s kick with his sword and counterattacked.
• Wu Yuan’s staff struck Ge Feng as Ge Feng was thrown away, leaving him badly injured and unconscious.
• Wu Yuan accused Li Yan of hiding his cultivation, then grew cautious when Li Yan’s aura still seemed to be at the mid Foundation Establishment Realm.
• Li Yan vanished from Wu Yuan’s Divine Sense, and his voice sounded beside Wu Yuan as he asked whether Wu Yuan still wanted the Devil Core.

Li Yan overwhelmed Wu Yuan after Wu Yuan sprang a trap and attacked him with his Dark Devil Eagle essence souls and Bone-Mottled Armor. The chapter ended with Li Yan gripping Wu Yuan by the neck and suppressing his devil qi and source power.

• Wu Yuan used his Dark Devil Eagle staff and a bone spur from his Bone-Mottled Armor to counterattack the unseen Li Yan.
• Li Yan struck Wu Yuan with a single punch, breaking his bone spur and crippling his arm.
• Wu Yuan watched his Dark Devil Eagle essence souls weaken and fall around Li Yan, apparently affected by poison that targeted essence souls.
• Li Yan vanished again as Wu Yuan released his remaining essence souls and tried to retreat on his devil cabinet.
• Li Yan appeared atop the devil cabinet, seized Wu Yuan by the neck, and left Wu Yuan unable to mobilize his devil qi or source power.

Li Yan killed Wuyuan with his enhanced physical strength and reflected on how the Undying Nether Phoenix's essence blood had transformed his speed and body. Meanwhile, Wang Changkun led his group through the forest, wary of their opponents and troubled by the losses their people had suffered.

• Li Yan snapped Wuyuan's neck, blasted out his devil core, and collected his belongings before burning the body.
• Li Yan found only bloody water where Gefeng had been, then flew away and considered how Heart-Erosion poison and his new physical abilities had decided the fight.
• Li Yan concluded that his speed and strength could let him defeat powerful cultivators, then extended his Divine Sense into the distance.
• Wang Changkun cautiously led five companions through the forest and considered the foreign cultivators' advantages and his group's mounting casualties.
• Wang Changkun recalled how the three patriarchs' people had survived on a meteorite in chaotic-flow space, where breaches in its protective formation had terrorized weaker cultivators.

Wang Changkun’s memories revealed how he lost his family on a shrinking meteorite and came to despise the people of the Desolate Moon Continent, though mounting casualties made him cautious. In a dim forest, he led five others while three meteor sand beasts searched ahead, and the chapter ended before their purpose was revealed.

• Wang Changkun’s father died shielding the family from meteorite fragments, and the three patriarchs saved Wang Changkun and his brothers while his mother was mortally wounded.
• Wang Changkun lost his mother and both younger brothers, then survived on the meteorite’s dangerous outskirts until a nascent soul middle stage cultivator took him in.
• Wang Changkun learned that lineage determined who could live near the meteorite’s center, and he resolved to earn his place through cultivation.
• The surviving clansmen reached the Desolate Moon Continent, where Wang Changkun joined the devil race in slaughtering its inhabitants and blamed them for his people’s past suffering.
• After hearing that seventy or eighty of his people had died, Wang Changkun grew more cautious and led five companions through a forest with three meteor sand beasts scouting ahead.

Wang Changkun used three Meteor Sand Beasts to locate Bai Rou and her companions’ concealed formation and led five allies into an attack. Yan Feijun’s ambush failed, and the chapter left him facing a Meteor Sand Beast that survived a direct strike and charged back at him.

• Wang Changkun released his three Meteor Sand Beasts, which detected fluctuations from Bai Rou and her companions’ formation and led his group toward it.
• Bai Rou and her companions recognized that the insects were tracking their position, while Yan Feijun opened the concealment formation and flew out with the subsidiary killing formations still in place.
• Yan Feijun attacked one Meteor Sand Beast with his life-bound purple ring, expecting to destroy it easily.
• The Meteor Sand Beast emerged without a mark and charged back at Yan Feijun.