Chapter Summaries

Zhao Min continued toward a market town with the injured Li Yan, pushing her body and spiritual energy to the brink as she traveled through a torrential storm. Meanwhile, a young married woman in palace attire reflected on the Black Devil Race's damaged Divine Road and the political opportunity it presented, then sensed something while flying.

• The cultivators tracking the gu insects learned that Yan Tantuo had disappeared and fled without harming the insects.
• Zhao Min struggled with worsening injuries and depleted spirit stones as she repeatedly infused Li Yan with condensed spiritual energy liquid to keep him alive.
• Zhao Min learned that the market town was still ten thousand li away and forced a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator to promise to reach it within seven days.
• Zhao Min flew through a violent downpour on the jade-green gourd, avoiding cultivators who noticed her while some secretly followed.
• A young married woman in palace attire recalled that her clan's two Supreme Elders had found severe damage to the Black Devil Race's Divine Road and considered how to use it to secure compensation and favor.
• The young married woman in palace attire sensed something as she flew.

A palace-dressed Nascent Soul cultivator discovered Zhao Min’s Ice Soul Blue Jade Body and stopped her while she tried to save the critically injured Li Yan. She questioned Zhao Min about her origins but remained unsure whether her story was true, leaving Zhao Min’s fate and the stranger’s intentions unresolved.

• The palace-dressed young woman noticed Zhao Min condensing Spirit Liquid to keep Li Yan alive, then recognized Zhao Min’s Ice Soul Blue Jade Body as ideal for cultivating the Heavenly Demon White Jade Disk.
• Zhao Min stopped treating Li Yan’s wounds when the stranger warned that continuing would soon lower her cultivation, then asked whether the woman could save him.
• The stranger said Li Yan’s soul was dissolving and asked why she should save him, so Zhao Min asked what service she wanted in return.
• The palace-dressed young woman demanded to know Zhao Min’s sect, and Zhao Min claimed she belonged to the Unworldly Sect with only her late master and junior brother.
• Zhao Min said she and Li Yan had been ambushed in a secluded valley near the border, and the palace-dressed young woman considered her story plausible but stayed suspicious.

Shanggong Changge offered to save Li Yan if Zhao Min became her disciple and came with her alone to join the White Devil Race. Zhao Min agreed for Li Yan’s sake, but fell silent when she learned she would have to leave him behind.

• Shanggong Changge offered Zhao Min a chance to save Li Yan in exchange for becoming her disciple.
• Zhao Min bowed to Shanggong Changge and offered Li Yan as a better disciple, but Shanggong Changge refused because he lacked Zhao Min’s special constitution.
• Shanggong Changge explained that Zhao Min’s Ice Soul Blue Jade Body could inherit the White Devil Race’s powers and cultivate a purple repository.
• Zhao Min agreed to become Shanggong Changge’s disciple if she saved Li Yan.
• Shanggong Changge clarified that Zhao Min would have to go with her alone and separate from Li Yan, leaving Zhao Min staring at him in silence.

Shangguan Changge treated Li Yan and arranged for him to recover in a village while taking Zhao Min away from him. Li Yan eventually woke in an unfamiliar room, still in pain and too weak to sit up.

• Zhao Min agreed to Shangguan Changge's conditions for saving Li Yan, and Shangguan Changge promised a way to verify his recovery through a sect token.
• Shangguan Changge killed the cultivators who had secretly followed Zhao Min through the rain.
• After stabilizing Li Yan's soul with a fifth-grade Soul-Stabilizing Pill, Shangguan Changge left him in a village under Dali's protection, and Zhao Min departed with her.
• Li Yan woke in a spacious stone room and remembered falling into a deep pool, but his hands failed when he tried to sit up.

Li Yan awoke in a village of Devil Race mortals and learned that Zhao Min had left after a senior rescued them and accepted her as a disciple. After recovering enough to read Zhao Min’s jade slip, he learned how to contact her and that he would have to return to the sect alone.

• Shan Yiyuan, the village headman, told Li Yan that two immortal masters had left him in the village a day and a half earlier.
• Li Yan noticed that the Mystic Silver Chicken meat Shan Yiyuan had fed him contained both spiritual energy and a trace of devilish energy.
• Li Yan found Zhao Min’s jade slip and cultivated for three days with two spirit stones to recover enough strength to read it.
• Zhao Min’s message explained that a senior had rescued them, accepted her as a disciple, and left Li Yan recovering in a Devil Race village.
• Zhao Min told Li Yan to send a voice transmission jade slip and a passage of their sect’s Twin Lotus Zen Heart formula to the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion in Mingdu City, then return to the sect alone.

Li Yan recovered enough to learn that he and Zhao Min had crossed into the Lost Continent, the Devil Race’s domain, and could not return by the way they came. As he gathered information about the continent and its people, he learned how the Devil Race divided into two groups and how an ancient discovery in the Demon-Devouring Abyss began to change their cultivation.

• Li Yan interpreted Zhao Min’s jade slip and realized that she had concealed their identities and joined a likely Devil Race sect.
• After recovering more of his strength, Li Yan spoke with Dan Yiyuan and learned that he and Zhao Min had crossed into the Lost Continent through a passage in the spatial barrier.
• Li Yan questioned Dan Yiyuan and the villagers, then learned that the Lost Continent held many races and might have a way to cross between worlds.
• Li Yan learned that the Devil Race ruled the continent and was divided into the Black Devil Race and the White Devil Race, whose cultivators differed in temperament and ancestry.
• An ancient Devil Race cultivator explored the Demon-Devouring Abyss, found unusual spirit plants in a forbidden zone, and brought them home after sensing their pleasant aura.
• The cultivator discovered that the plants released faint wisps of black smoke at different times of day.

A devil cultivator discovered that black smoke from unknown spirit plants strengthened demonic beasts but poisoned their minds, then found it altered their demonic cores and became convinced it offered a shortcut to power. He disappeared with the plants, and forty years later a formidable early Nascent Soul devil cultivator emerged on the Lost Continent, identified as a member of the Black Devil Race.

• A devil cultivator sealed spirit plants that released black smoke with several demonic beasts and later found the beasts had grown stronger, more violent, and advanced in rank.
• The devil cultivator discovered the beasts had expelled the toxins, but black qi remained in their demonic cores and drew on their essence blood.
• The devil cultivator concluded the black qi could rapidly strengthen him and began planning further experiments before trying to cultivate with it himself.
• One month later, the devil cultivator vanished with all the spirit plants, and his clan eventually assumed he had left for another branch.
• Forty years later, an early Nascent Soul devil cultivator appeared on the Lost Continent and defeated or killed most cultivators of the same realm he challenged.
• Nascent Soul cultivators identified the newcomer as a member of the Black Devil Race, despite his unusual black skin.

Li Yan learned from Shan Yiyuan how Xiahou Shangxie founded the Black Devil Race and divided the Lost Continent with the White Devil Race. He realized the village stood on their border, where mixed qi and incursions by devil beasts kept tensions simmering.

• Xiahou Shangxie established the Xiahou Lineage, whose powerful army helped turn the war against the Verdant Continent in its favor.
• Xiahou Shangxie expanded his Lineage by spreading devil qi and spiritual vegetation, triggering a seventy-one-year war with the original Devil Race.
• After withdrawing his army from the Holy Devil Palace, Xiahou Shangxie founded the Black Devil Race, while the original Devil Race declared itself the White Devil Race and divided the Lost Continent into eastern and western territories.
• Li Yan learned from Shan Yiyuan that the village lay near the border and that its people had adapted to mixed spiritual qi and devil qi.
• Li Yan learned that devil beasts sometimes crossed from Black Devil territory to attack mortals and low-level cultivators, despite the absence of an open war between the two races.

Li Yan analyzed Zhao Min’s jade slip and Shan Yiyuan’s account to work out how Zhao Min had survived and why a White Devil Race cultivator had taken her as a disciple. He remained stranded on the Lost Continent, uncertain where Zhao Min had gone, and puzzled by her instructions to send a message containing a cultivation formula he did not recognize.

• Li Yan reviewed Shan Yiyuan’s information and Zhao Min’s jade slip, concluding that Zhao Min had kept their origins secret and likely agreed to become a cultivator’s disciple to save him.
• Li Yan reasoned that Zhao Min’s Ice Soul Blue Jade Constitution might have drawn the attention of the powerful White Devil Race cultivator who saved him.
• Li Yan suspected Zhao Min had withheld her destination either because her new master wanted to keep them apart or because Zhao Min had chosen to pursue powerful cultivation herself.
• Li Yan studied Zhao Min’s request to add the opening section of the Twin Lotus Zen Heart to a message but could not recall ever learning that formula.
• Li Yan found two gray spirit stones Zhao Min had left for him, recognizing that they would help restore his spiritual power and access his mysterious storage space.

Li Yan recovered from his near-fatal journey through the white-light barrier and watched two Devil Head cultivators retrieve Shan Yiyuan’s command arrow, confirming that Zhao Min was under the protection of a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator. He remained unable to learn Zhao Min’s whereabouts or understand why he was being directed to the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, and planned to leave the village in a few days.

• Li Yan concluded that the Undying Nether Phoenix blood essence had exhausted its power rebuilding his body as he survived the white-light barrier, and he spent three days recovering in Shan Yiyuan’s home.
• Two armored Devil Head cultivators arrived, set up a barrier, questioned Shan Yiyuan, and took his command arrow while Li Yan secretly watched them.
• Li Yan inferred that the cultivators were guarding Zhao Min’s whereabouts and that her master was a Nascent Soul Devil General, then decided against following the two men while his injuries remained serious.
• Li Yan continued puzzling over Zhao Min’s transmission talisman and why he had to deliver it to the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, unaware that Shangguan Changge had already taken Zhao Min to the Black Devil Race.
• Shan Yiyuan offered Li Yan demon beast meat, and Li Yan declined, saying he would leave in a few days and offering to remind the cultivators about their promise to Shan Yiyuan.

Li Yan gathered information in Shan Yiyuan’s village, then secretly left to find a secluded place to heal before deciding how to reach Zhao Min. Zhao Min traveled with Shanggong Changge, who assured her that Li Yan should be alive, while Zhao Min privately sensed their connection and feared endangering him.

• Li Yan learned that Mingdu City was about a thousand li northwest and that mortals and cultivators lived and worked side by side there.
• Li Yan spent two days questioning the village elders, then left secretly under the rain to recover his strength near the border between the Black and White Devil Races.
• Shanggong Changge traveled west with Zhao Min and her companions, telling Zhao Min that her junior brother should be safe and that they would soon confirm his condition.
• Zhao Min privately thought she already knew Li Yan was alive and worried that her connection to him might someday bring him trouble.
• Li Yan avoided settlements and cultivators, found a secluded barren mountain, carved out a cave dwelling, and prepared to heal his injuries.
• Li Yan checked Tuban and saw that the little Purple God Dragon-Elephant’s soul was nearly collapsed after the power of the seven-colored space.

Li Yan restored his strength after more than five months of meditation while the Snow Mosquito King guarded the cave and endured cultivation of "Ten Thousand Beasts Devour the Dao." With his recovery complete, Li Yan set aside refining more essence blood and began a blood technique to search for Zhao Min.

• Li Yan brought the Snow Mosquito King to the cave, explained that the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant was injured, and ordered it to guard the area.
• The Snow Mosquito King considered attacking Li Yan and luring in weaker intruders, but fear of Li Yan kept it obediently on guard.
• After more than five months, Li Yan finished recovering by consuming roughly three thousand spirit stones and sent the Snow Mosquito King back into the black mist to cultivate.
• Li Yan decided that finding Zhao Min mattered more than refining more Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood.
• Li Yan pierced his right palm with his left index finger, sending a stream of blood toward the cave ceiling.

Li Yan tested his recovered body and discovered that his cultivation and spiritual power had greatly improved, though golden core realm cultivators still outclassed him. While studying Zhao Min’s jade slip, he noticed spiritual power inexplicably disappearing during circulation and traced the loss to the Shenfeng acupoint.

• Li Yan confirmed that silver light healed his palm and that his body had become as tough as a low-grade magical treasure.
• Li Yan tested his denser spiritual power with a Water Arrow and judged that his chances of escaping the two fiends had improved, while acknowledging he could not match golden core cultivators in a direct spell battle.
• Li Yan reread Zhao Min’s jade slip but could not understand the meaning of the “opening chapter of Twin-lotus Zen Heart,” leaving him worried about approaching the border garrison camp.
• Li Yan noticed that a little more spiritual power than usual vanished each time it circulated through his body.
• Li Yan examined his meridians with a single strand of spiritual energy and identified the Shenfeng acupoint as the source of the loss.

Li Yan discovered that an extra red thread fused with his heart was causing the unusual spiritual power consumption near the Shenfeng Acupoint. He recognized it as an Entwined Heart Twin Lotus Gu and began recalling how the Gu could be separated, leaving its purpose and the danger to his body unresolved.

• Li Yan completed three cautious circulation cycles and found that spiritual power gathering at the Shenfeng Acupoint triggered a faint twitch in his heart.
• Li Yan discovered a red thread fused with the surface of his heart and realized that trying to remove it could destroy the heart as well.
• Li Yan suspected the White Devil Race Nascent Soul cultivator had planted the thread, though he also considered Zhao Min, the jade slip, and an unknown intruder as possible clues.
• Li Yan connected Zhao Min's message and the Twin Lotus Zen Heart opening chapter to the Entwined Heart Twin Lotus Gu, a paired insect that hid in the heart and caused its partner to die when one perished.
• Li Yan recalled how a Buli Peak Golden Core Realm cultivator had devised a way to separate the paired Gu, and began considering the problem she faced.

Li Yan learned that Zhao Min had implanted Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu in both of them, binding their lives together. He concluded that she had done so to protect herself from capture and to guard against the Nascent Soul devil general treating him, leaving both of their fates tied to each other.

• A history of the Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu explained how a Buli Peak cultivator secretly bound her Dao Companion to herself, and how the sect later restricted and improved the technique.
• Li Yan remembered Zhao Min’s jade slips and realized she had refined Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu and implanted them in both of them.
• Li Yan grew anxious when he understood that he could not forcibly remove the gu before reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
• After rereading Zhao Min’s message, Li Yan realized her coded warning reflected repeated failed attempts to find a way to save him while she traveled alone in the Lost Continent.
• Li Yan reasoned that Zhao Min had bound their lives together to avoid being captured and humiliated, and to guard against the devil general harming him.

Li Yan arrived at Mingdu City and repelled cultivators from the Cangyu Sect and Snowmoon Wolf Clan who tried to probe him with their Divine Senses. As he entered the city, three White Devil Race cultivators discussed the growing danger facing Human Race cultivators and the uncertain stance of the Holy Devil Palace.

• Li Yan approached Mingdu City, concealed his cultivation, and descended outside the gates because the city’s restriction forbade flight.
• When cultivators from the Cangyu Sect and Snowmoon Wolf Clan probed him, Li Yan reflected their Divine Senses and injured several of them.
• Three White Devil Race cultivators discussed how the Demon God Hall offered rewards for killing Human Race cultivators and warned one another not to provoke them.
• The White Devil Race girl questioned rumors that elders of the Holy Devil Palace had become hostile toward the Human Race, and her senior brother rebuked her for speaking carelessly.
• The Cangyu Sect and Snowmoon Wolf Clan cultivators recovered and watched Li Yan with hostile intent as he continued toward Mingdu City, remaining alert to their actions.

Li Yan entered Mingdu City, observed its customs, and gathered information while searching for a way to find Zhao Min. After mapping the city and buying a map of the surrounding area, he began studying it in a rented room.

• Li Yan passed the city gate’s cultivator-detecting light, answered the Devil Race soldiers’ questions, and paid two low-grade spirit stones for a temporary token.
• Li Yan explored Mingdu City and observed its many mortals, cultivators, and beastlike races while avoiding attention and passing the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.
• Li Yan bought a map of the surrounding area and books about the Lost Continent, then rented a room with a defensive formation.
• Li Yan reconstructed a rough map of Mingdu City from memory and began comparing it with his purchased map.

Li Yan weighed how to deliver a message to Zhao Min through the Hundred Paths Treasure Pavilion without attracting the Golden Core cultivators watching Mingdu City. After studying books about the Lost Continent, he learned more about the Devil Races and suspected the Human Race’s favorable standing among the White Devil Race was gradually fading.

• Li Yan sensed several Golden Core cultivators in Mingdu City and considered ways to investigate the Hundred Paths Treasure Pavilion without provoking them.
• Li Yan stayed in his room for more than a day and studied books about the Lost Continent before deciding to proceed cautiously.
• Li Yan learned that the Black Devil Race was ruled by the Demon God Hall, cultivated with devil qi, and aggressively invaded other realms.
• Li Yan learned that the Black Devil Race targeted the Human Race while the White Devil Race had closer ties with it, though the Human Race was gradually losing its advantages.
• Li Yan concluded that he and Zhao Min were fortunate to have arrived in White Devil Race territory, now ruled by the Holy Devil Palace.

Li Yan studied the Devil Races and the Lost Continent while planning how to find Zhao Min, then discovered that fish-headed cultivators were tracking him in Mingdu City. He avoided confronting them and arrived at the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion to seek information about Zhao Min.

• Li Yan learned that the White and Black Devil Races had distinct cultivation ranks, a long history of limited conflict, and secret trade between their territories.
• Li Yan decided to seek information about Zhao Min at the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion rather than risk approaching Devil Race army camps.
• On the third morning, Li Yan encountered six hostile fish-headed cultivators in his inn, including two who had joined the group to help kill him.
• The fish-headed Pseudo-Core cultivator ordered his allies to watch the city gates and planned to involve the Snowmoon Wolf Race in an ambush.
• Li Yan spent the day calmly visiting shops, then went to the Hundred Paths Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, where a young shop assistant greeted him.

Li Yan visited Baidao Treasure Pavilion to investigate a jade slip meant for Zhao Min and learned that a burly man had arranged for it to be held there. He left the jade slip with the shopkeeper, who secretly hoped Li Yan would stop searching for Zhao Min and feared General Shanggong would kill him if he continued.

• Li Yan inspected Baidao Treasure Pavilion and asked to speak with its owner about a jade slip bearing his likeness.
• The man in black revealed that someone had arranged months earlier for a Human Race cultivator to leave a jade slip there, and described the person as a burly man in his mid-thirties.
• Li Yan identified himself as Li Yan and said the jade slip was for Zhao Min, then pressed the shopkeeper for more details about the man.
• The man in black explained that the person who arranged the deposit had already visited twice to collect it, but Li Yan had not yet arrived.
• Li Yan left a pale-yellow jade slip with the man in black and departed, while the shopkeeper privately thought of Zhao Min's progress and General Shanggong's warnings against letting Li Yan find her.