Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and the others’ illusion formation failed to hide them from Teng Wuji, whose thunderous area attack devastated the valley and left Hu Xiaowang and Yan Feijun badly injured. As Teng Wuji closed in for a killing strike, the group fled, while Li Yan considered using Phoenix Soars to Heaven to escape; meanwhile, Elder Chigong was intercepted near Fengliang Mountain.

• Teng Wuji counted down, then unleashed dark golden thunderbolts across the valley, setting the landscape ablaze and striking Li Yan’s formation.
• Hu Xiaowang was severely injured while sustaining the formation, and Yan Feijun collapsed after the attack damaged his Divine Sense.
• Teng Wuji spotted the concealed group, appeared above them, and formed a powerful dark golden sphere to attack.
• Hu Xiaowang used his strongest defensive technique, and Sun Guoshu led the group out of the formation as the sphere expanded to engulf them.
• Elder Chigong was intercepted near Fengliang Mountain by a blood-cloaked cultivator while traveling to meet Li Yan and the others.
• Li Yan judged that Phoenix Soars to Heaven could let him escape the attack’s range and considered fleeing with the Cloud-Piercing Willow.

Li Yan led Bai Rou and the others in a desperate escape from Teng Wuji, who pursued them with lightning-powered orbs. After Cloud-Piercing Willow’s barrier shattered, Li Yan endured a direct strike, and the five survivors remained airborne as Teng Wuji stared in disbelief.

• Bai Rou used her jade ruler treasure to break Teng Wuji’s first attack, and Li Yan carried the group out of the valley on Cloud-Piercing Willow.
• Teng Wuji sent three dark golden orbs after the fleeing group and reduced their power while suspecting the cultivators were involved in a hidden scheme.
• Li Yan steered Cloud-Piercing Willow around the first orb and used a mid-grade spirit stone to reinforce its barrier against the second.
• The third orb shattered Cloud-Piercing Willow’s barrier and struck the six cultivators, sending them tumbling toward the ground.
• Li Yan endured the lightning strike with his body, and five figures remained in the air, astonishing Teng Wuji.

Li Yan and Bai Rou faced Teng Wuji, a mid-stage Golden Core Realm demonic cultivator, after his lightning attack incapacitated Hu Xiaowang and the others. Li Yan supplied Bai Rou with mid-grade spirit stones to strengthen her puppets as Teng Wuji sent a demonic tiger after her and attacked Li Yan.

• Li Yan pretended to be badly hurt while reassuring Bai Rou, and they discovered Hu Xiaowang and the other three had survived but fallen unconscious.
• Teng Wuji recognized the strength of Li Yan's body and Bai Rou's puppets, then resolved to capture Bai Rou and seize the group's treasures.
• Li Yan asked Bai Rou whether her puppets could use mid-grade spirit stones, and she confirmed that they could.
• Teng Wuji sent a White-Blazing Demonic Tiger after Bai Rou and a scarlet attack toward Li Yan.
• Li Yan threw three mid-grade spirit stones to Bai Rou, then advanced to meet Teng Wuji's attack as Bai Rou prepared to power her puppets.

Li Yan charged Teng Wuji but was caught by the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle and taken inside. Bai Rou launched her three puppets at the White Blazing Demon Tiger in a desperate attempt to reach the bottle and save him.

• Bai Rou sent her three long-armed giant ape puppets after Li Yan, but the White Blazing Demon Tiger blocked them and attacked.
• Teng Wuji used the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle to ensnare Li Yan in red light and draw him into the bottle.
• Li Yan was pulled into the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle before Bai Rou could intervene.
• Bai Rou made her puppets abandon defense and attack the White Blazing Demon Tiger, which soon fell into a disadvantage.

Teng Wuji captured Bai Rou and tried to uncover the pill she had swallowed, while Li Yan struggled to survive the scorching interior of the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle. Li Yan used the Gui Water True Scripture to steady his spiritual power, but he emerged badly desiccated and remained trapped inside.

• Bai Rou prepared to detonate her three puppets and take poison rather than be captured, but Teng Wuji seized her before she could act.
• Teng Wuji restrained Bai Rou, disabled her spiritual power, and forced her mouth open to inspect the pill as her puppets fell inactive.
• Inside the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle, Li Yan endured heat that rapidly dried his body and sent his spiritual power surging out of control.
• Li Yan sensed a force resisting the heat, entered his violet dantian chamber, and circulated the Gui Water True Scripture to regain control.
• Li Yan discovered that his fire spiritual power had restrained the other four cauldrons, saving him, though it had been depleted by more than ninety percent.

Li Yan escaped the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle by using the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and emerged in time to save Bai Rou from Teng Wuji. His surprise attack freed her and wounded Teng Wuji slightly, but the devil cultivator quickly recovered, leaving Li Yan aware that his poison and strength might not be enough to defeat him.

• Li Yan converted his spiritual power into pure fire spiritual power, endured the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle's restrictions, and failed to break through its barrier by force.
• Li Yan used the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief to cover the bottle's opening and escaped as Teng Wuji prepared to exploit Bai Rou's helplessness.
• Teng Wuji removed the poison pill from Bai Rou's mouth and restrained her, while she wept in despair.
• Li Yan appeared beside Bai Rou, struck Teng Wuji twice to free her, and kicked him back while urging Bai Rou to be careful.
• Teng Wuji recovered from Li Yan's attack and questioned how he had escaped the bottle, while Li Yan realized that his poison had only slightly injured the devil cultivator.

Li Yan rescued Bai Rou and faced Teng Wuji while the Incandescent Demon Tiger attacked the Great Dragon-Elephant Array. After narrowly evading Teng Wuji’s ambush, Li Yan left Bai Rou to defend the array as the Purple God Dragon-Elephant revealed itself and she sent her puppets into battle.

• Li Yan placed Bai Rou and her damaged puppets inside the Great Dragon-Elephant Array, then tried to stall Teng Wuji outside it.
• Teng Wuji ordered Duanfeng to attack the array while he confronted Li Yan, but his surprise strike only cut through Li Yan’s afterimage.
• Bai Rou prepared to fight Duanfeng as the Incandescent Demon Tiger blasted the array, whose defenses held against its attacks.
• The Purple God Dragon-Elephant revealed itself to Bai Rou and explained that Li Yan had ordered it to conserve its strength for Teng Wuji.
• Bai Rou activated her three long-armed giant ape puppets and sent them out to confront Duanfeng.

Li Yan fought Teng Wuji while trying to keep him occupied until reinforcements could arrive, but Teng Wuji’s attacks exposed Li Yan’s hidden strength and left him badly wounded. Li Yan continued evading and weakening the dark-golden spheres, though his strained meridians threatened to end the delay soon.

• Bai Rou sent her three long-armed giant ape puppets into a fierce attack, startling the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant.
• Li Yan dodged Teng Wuji’s sneak attack and used Melt Bamboo Shoot liquid to restore his body while keeping Teng Wuji away from the formation.
• Teng Wuji struck Li Yan with a dark-golden sphere, badly burning his arms and tearing his clothes, and recognized that Li Yan’s cultivation and Divine Sense concealed unusual strength.
• Teng Wuji unleashed six more dark-golden spheres, while Li Yan fled with Phoenix Soars to Heaven and cast repeated wind blades to slow and weaken them.
• Li Yan continued trying to delay Teng Wuji, but the strain on his meridians threatened to exhaust him before reinforcements could arrive.

Li Yan used Phoenix Soars to Heaven and the Li Fire Mysterious Yellow Fan to resist Teng Wuji’s Dark-Gold Lightning Radiance, but Teng Wuji kept pursuing him and laying spatial prisons. As Li Yan’s strength waned, the battle below between Bai Rou and the White Blazing Demon Tiger also reached a critical point.

• Teng Wuji used his Divine Sense to track Li Yan’s spatial fluctuations and tried to exhaust him as Li Yan repeatedly fled with Phoenix Soars to Heaven.
• Li Yan sent a net of Li Fire from the Li Fire Mysterious Yellow Fan against Teng Wuji’s Dark-Gold Lightning Radiance, destroying one sphere of light.
• Teng Wuji formed more than twenty spheres of Dark-Gold Lightning Radiance and launched them from all directions, forcing Li Yan to release the fan’s remaining Li Fire.
• Li Yan’s blood-red Li Fire net shattered five spheres and reached Teng Wuji, who dissolved it into black smoke and recognized its unusual dissolving power.
• Teng Wuji stopped using Dark-Gold Lightning Radiance and repeatedly pursued Li Yan, casting spatial prisons that Li Yan narrowly escaped.
• The battle between Bai Rou and the White Blazing Demon Tiger below reached a critical juncture.

Bai Rou and her three spirit-stone-powered giant ape puppets fought the White Blazing Demon Tiger while Li Yan stalled Teng Wuji. The injured tiger broke the puppets’ formation by sacrificing its tail to immobilize one, then circled back toward the trapped puppet as the small puppet appeared beside it.

• Bai Rou used her three puppets to drive the wounded White Blazing Demon Tiger back while the Great Dragon Elephant Formation kept her safe.
• The White Blazing Demon Tiger targeted the small puppet, whose surprise attacks had opened a severe wound in its waist.
• The tiger curled into a ball, smashed through the puppets’ encirclement, and tried to break free.
• Bai Rou sent a large puppet to block it, but the White Blazing Demon Tiger severed its own tail and used the transformed tail to entangle and pin the puppet underground.
• The other large puppet fired a white-gold arrow, but the White Blazing Demon Tiger circled back toward the pinned puppet as the small puppet appeared beside it.

Bai Rou and the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant killed the White Blazing Demon Tiger with a surprise pull and a spirit-stone arrow, then hurried to aid Li Yan. Teng Wuji attacked as Bai Rou rearmed her puppets, leaving Li Yan badly wounded and struggling to control his mana while Bai Rou prepared to block the pursuer.

• The White Blazing Demon Tiger trapped one of Bai Rou’s giant ape puppets and moved to destroy it, but the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant pulled the beast into the path of Bai Rou’s white-gold arrow, killing it.
• Bai Rou recognized the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant and replaced the puppets’ depleted spirit stones so they could help Li Yan.
• Teng Wuji seized the two spirit stones and attacked Bai Rou and the puppets, but Li Yan shoved them into the Great Dragon Elephant Formation.
• Bai Rou saw that Li Yan was gravely wounded after holding Teng Wuji off for several breaths, and Li Yan told her not to join the fight.
• Bai Rou sent the three puppets to stop Teng Wuji’s pursuit while Li Yan stayed put and tried to steady his surging mana.

Li Yan risked his life to protect Bai Rou and the others after Teng Wuji attacked them in grief over the White Blazing Demonic Tiger’s death. Li Yan met Teng Wuji’s enormous stomp head-on and injured his leg, but Li Yan was left severely wounded as the clash continued.

• Teng Wuji mourned the White Blazing Demonic Tiger and turned his fury on Bai Rou and the puppets.
• Li Yan used Tuban and the Snow Mosquitoes to delay Teng Wuji, then pulled Bai Rou and the three puppets into the Great Dragon Elephant Array.
• Teng Wuji ignored Li Yan and stomped toward the array, determined to kill Bai Rou and the others.
• Li Yan chose to defend the array, unleashed his full strength, and told the Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant to drag him inside if he lost consciousness.
• Li Yan struck Teng Wuji’s foot with both fists, suffering severe injuries while Teng Wuji’s right leg went numb and his body was thrown backward.

Li Yan and Bai Rou wounded Teng Wuji, but Teng Wuji nearly killed Li Yan with a crushing elbow strike. Li Yan vanished at the last moment and was found unconscious inside the battered Great Dragon-Elephant Array, while Bai Rou entrusted his survival to the little Purple God Dragon-Elephant.

• Li Yan struck Teng Wuji, and Bai Rou’s three puppets pierced Teng Wuji’s right calf, severely injuring it.
• Bai Rou collapsed from the backlash of controlling the puppets, and Li Yan fell unconscious after suffering grave injuries from Teng Wuji’s attack.
• Teng Wuji attacked Li Yan again as the Purple God Dragon-Elephant tried to pull him into the array.
• Just before Teng Wuji’s elbow struck his head, Li Yan vanished, and the collision devastated the valley.
• The little Purple God Dragon-Elephant fed pills to the unconscious Li Yan, and Bai Rou told it that their survival depended on it.

Li Yan used a desperate secret art and a carefully timed ambush to grievously wound Teng Wuji, then collapsed near death and was rescued by the little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant. Teng Wuji reached the Great Dragon Elephant Formation and struck it as Bai Rou and the others faced what seemed to be their final moments.

• Li Yan swallowed the prepared Melt Bamboo Shoot and used Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos to unleash a near-fatal attack on Teng Wuji, damaging his throat before the recoil left Li Yan unconscious and badly injured.
• The little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant caught Li Yan with its trunk and carried him back into the Great Dragon Elephant Formation.
• Bai Rou entrusted the group’s fate to the formation spirit as the injured Teng Wuji approached, consumed by hatred and the heart demon caused by his defeat.
• Teng Wuji gathered the power of heaven and earth and punched the formation, making its purple barrier crack and shed sparks.
• Bai Rou looked toward the unconscious Li Yan without fear as the formation’s purple radiance whirled around the six people and its dragon and elephant cries grew louder.

Teng Wuji’s attack was stopped by an unseen cultivator while Li Yan wandered through a freezing, flame-lined bridge in an unconscious vision. Wei Zhongran treated Li Yan’s catastrophic injuries as the group traveled north, but feared Li Yan would lose his body and need to possess another; then Wei Zhongran realized something was wrong.

• Teng Wuji enlarged his body and struck at the violet sphere, but an unseen person seized his wrist and challenged him for bullying the younger generation.
• Li Yan found himself alone on a bridge of ghostly blue flames, unable to remember who he was or use Divine Sense.
• Li Yan touched a flame, became encased in spreading frost, and began losing consciousness as his organs burned.
• Bai Rou and Hu Xiaowang’s group traveled north with Wei Zhongran, who treated Li Yan while the others learned how severe his injuries were.
• Wei Zhongran said Li Yan might not preserve his body and would need to possess another after his soul recovered, then suddenly realized something was wrong.

Li Yan’s soul was being pulled from his body after a battle left him near death, but a silver light awakened the Nine Layers of the Netherworld and began repairing him. The vortex vanished and his soul returned, leaving him conscious and enduring immense pain as his body transformed.

• Wei Zhongran wondered whether Li Yan had learned the Qiongqi Purgatory Art from Chen Ying, but concluded his strength exceeded what that technique could explain.
• Li Yan believed he had died and watched a vortex draw his three souls and seven spirits from his Niwan Palace.
• Wei Zhongran prepared to collect Li Yan’s soul and find him a body, but a silver gleam appeared before he could complete the spell.
• A silver light spread from Li Yan’s lower abdomen, suppressed the ghostly blue flames, pulled his escaping soul back, and began healing his damaged body.
• Wei Zhongran sensed Li Yan’s body recovering and suspected the Fragmented Poison Body had caused the transformation.
• The vortex disappeared, and Li Yan regained sensation as the silver light inflicted unbearable pain while his body’s sinews and bones were repaired.

Li Yan endured a mysterious transformation that rebuilt his body while Wei Zhongran watched over him, leaving Wei Zhongran unable to explain the recovery. After Li Yan stabilized, Wei Zhongran learned that reports confirmed the Devil Race army was preparing a major offensive and asked Elder Chi Gong about the disciple from Luoshu Lake.

• Wei Zhongran watched Li Yan suffer as silver radiance appeared and his flesh fell away before growing back, while golden runes strengthened his organs and vitality.
• After an hour, Li Yan's body had returned to normal, and Wei Zhongran left him to recover without probing further into his secrets.
• Wei Zhongran told Elder Chi Gong that Li Yan's injuries had stabilized and claimed he had used two pills refined by Patriarch Da Cen.
• Elder Chi Gong reported that intelligence from Bai Rou and the others confirmed signs of a major Devil Race offensive and that the Nascent Soul seniors had ordered heightened vigilance.
• Wei Zhongran and Elder Chi Gong discussed how divine-sense interference had delayed their warning, then Wei Zhongran asked about the disciple from Luoshu Lake.

After the rescue, Wei Zhongran and Elder Chigong discussed the mission and Li Yan’s strength, while Li Yan woke in his Fengliang Mountain cave residence with no sign of his severe battle injuries. He realized he had been rescued but could not explain his recovery, and a voice spoke beside him.

• Elder Chigong told Wei Zhongran that Li Yan and the Luoshu Lake disciple had been escorted back toward the Phantom Sect, and the other rescued disciples remained under restrictions and orders to stay silent.
• Wei Zhongran and Elder Chigong credited the rescue to their coordinated efforts, while Elder Chigong praised Li Yan for holding off a mid-stage Golden Core Realm devil cultivator.
• Elder Chigong urged Wei Zhongran to nurture Li Yan, then left as dawn broke, and Wei Zhongran returned to his own quarters after checking Li Yan’s cave residence.
• Li Yan woke in his cave residence, recalled using the Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos technique before losing consciousness, and concluded that the rescue signal had brought him and the others back.
• Li Yan found his body weak and bloodied but free of the battle injuries he remembered, and wondered whether he had taken the True Essence Pill before a voice sounded beside him.

After waking, Li Yan learned that Wei Zhongran had rescued him and the others, but his body had been too badly damaged to recover with medicine. The Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood rebuilt his body, and Li Yan began to understand its power of rebirth as he struggled to inspect his changed body.

• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant told Li Yan that Wei Zhongran had defeated the demonic cultivator and carried the group back to Windcool Mountain.
• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant explained that Li Yan had been near death despite Wei Zhongran's treatment, until silver radiance appeared and restored his body.
• Li Yan recalled the vision and the words about the Nine layers of the Netherworld, then concluded that the Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood had rebuilt him.
• Li Yan probed the Li Fire Mysterious Yellow Fan and found most of the essence blood remained unrefined, but using his Divine Sense caused him severe pain.
• Li Yan examined his body and found fragile new flesh, thicker meridians, and nearly depleted spiritual power.
• Li Yan concluded that the Undying Nether Phoenix could revive itself by regrowing flesh on white bones.

Li Yan recovered from his bodily reconstruction and realized the Undying Nether Phoenix bloodline had become part of him, while worrying about what Wei Zhongran had discovered. In Zhouyang Town, demonic cultivators investigated Teng Wuji’s disappearance and learned that a poisoned soldier’s soul had been tainted with an incurable poison.

• Li Yan examined his newly remade body, concluded that his strength could rise once he recovered, and sensed that the refined Undying Nether Phoenix blood’s power remained within him.
• Li Yan worried that Wei Zhongran had discovered his concealed cultivation and knowledge of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, and considered claiming the phoenix essence blood had caused his bodily changes.
• Li Yan had the Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant set up the Great Dragon Elephant Formation in his cave abode, then fell asleep from exhaustion.
• In Zhouyang Town, the middle-aged demonic cultivator surnamed Wu told Brother Jin that Teng Wuji had vanished after pursuing a suspicious squad and had not returned from a nearby battle.
• The middle-aged demonic cultivator surnamed Wu reported that a vicious poison cultivator had crippled Jiao Hua and that a concealed poison fused with Jiao Hua’s soul, forcing him to kill the doomed soldier.