Chapter Summaries

Li Yan secretly left the Feng family castle and descended into a vast lake after sensing an unusual aura there. He reached a depth where thousands of powerful demonic fish surrounded him, leaving him to face a deadly swarm.

• Li Yan realized the Feng family was watching him and had the Snow Mosquito King take his place while he slipped away at night.
• Li Yan disguised himself and flew to a lake more than three hundred li east of the Feng family castle, where deep waters concealed a growing killing intent.
• Li Yan used the Water-Avoidance Art to descend into the lake and killed an aquatic demonic beast that attacked him.
• Li Yan encountered thousands of strange fish, each with cultivation at the tenth level of Qi Condensation, and recognized the danger of being surrounded by the swarm.

Li Yan descended into the lake, using his poison to destroy a swarm of strange fish before encountering a powerful humanoid magical beast. After learning that the creature’s cave lay elsewhere, Li Yan continued toward the place he had come to investigate, while the creature worried about his strength and the Feng Lineage’s absence.

• Li Yan released Green Flame Burning Gold into the water, dissolving the attacking strange fish as he sank deeper into the lake.
• After the swarm retreated, a humanoid magical beast asked Li Yan why he had entered its territory.
• Li Yan said he wanted to investigate an area below, and the magical beast confirmed that its cave dwelling was elsewhere.
• The two agreed that Li Yan could proceed as long as he did not attack the other magical beasts.
• The humanoid magical beast returned to the reefs and suspected that Li Yan was either exceptionally well concealed or too powerful for the Feng Lineage’s elders to detect.

Li Yan explored the ruins of the Thousand Mountains Ancient Battlefield beneath the lake, testing its discarded weapons and overcoming its killing intent. He followed a faint aura through a vast field of aggressive weeds and found an unusually dense cluster of roots.

• The water-ghoul-like demonic beast considered warning the Feng family about Li Yan, but decided to leave him alone after recalling his strength.
• Li Yan reached the lakebed ruins, recognized them as an ancient battlefield, and tested a tattered banner that dissolved when he infused it with spiritual power.
• Li Yan tested a broken spear and concluded that the scattered artifacts were decayed and worthless despite their faint spiritual light.
• The water-ghoul-like demonic beast sensed Li Yan's powerful Divine Sense and stopped watching him, while Li Yan continued through the battlefield.
• Li Yan crossed more than a hundred li and encountered a vast field of weeds that attacked him with scorching leaves and stalks.
• Li Yan cut down the weeds and found a dense, tabletop-sized mass of roots, identifying it as the place he had sought.

Li Yan uncovered a crystalline skull fragment beneath intelligent weeds in an ancient battlefield and brought it to the little Violet Divine Dragon Elephant. The fragment awakened the elephant’s bloodline and revealed that a powerful member of its clan had died in battle, leaving the elephant grieving as Li Yan kept the relic for safekeeping.

• Li Yan drove away the spiritual weeds and found a warm, crystalline bone fragment buried beneath their roots.
• Li Yan entered Tuban after the little Violet Divine Dragon Elephant awakened, and showed it the fragment.
• The little Violet Divine Dragon Elephant touched the bone, whose violet patterns flared and released painful, scorching yang energy.
• The elephant sensed through its bloodline that the fragment belonged to a powerful deceased member of its clan and heard that being’s despairing battle roar.
• Li Yan recognized the fragment as part of the elephant’s clansman’s skull and took it back, telling the elephant to recover before receiving it.

The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant revealed that a crystalline skull could let it forge a physical body through its inherited Soul-Burning Fire Refinement ability. Li Yan learned the process might be fatal and left uncertain whether to let it proceed.

• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant blocked Li Yan from retrieving the crystalline skull, then revealed it could use the fragment to forge a physical body.
• Li Yan recalled the few known ways to restore the elephant’s body and doubted that such a small skull could make the seemingly impossible task feasible.
• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant explained that its race inherited Soul-Burning Fire Refinement and that the vessel had to meet strict conditions in size and strength.
• The elephant said it would place its soul inside the skull and refine itself into the vessel, but admitted it did not know how long the process would take or whether it would survive.
• Li Yan recognized that the ability would inflict agony like soul-extraction and spirit-refinement and fell silent.

The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant prepared to use Soul-Burning Fire Refinement on the skull, while Li Yan left the lake and returned to Feng Lineage Castle. Zhu Luomu arrived to investigate Fang Guangjun’s suspected betrayal and departed with Feng Tao and Li Yan after hearing the Feng Lineage ancestor’s account.

• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant told Li Yan it would attempt Soul-Burning Fire Refinement after three months and asked him to gather fire spiritual energy.
• Li Yan left the lake, and a water-ghost-like demonic beast watched him go with relief and confusion.
• Zhu Luomu arrived at Feng Lineage Castle and met the Feng Lineage ancestor, while the grieving Feng Tao sought comfort from her master.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor told Zhu Luomu and the branch heads that Fang Guangjun had attacked him and escaped after sending an unexplained message, though the ancestor had killed him.
• Zhu Luomu accepted that Fang Guangjun was a spy after hearing Tang Tian and Wu Yizhen’s accusations, then left with Feng Tao and Li Yan to return to Falling Star Valley.

Feng Tao warned Zhang Ming to keep the Feng Lineage tragedy secret, then explained the dangers of Thousand Mountain Marsh when he asked about the ancient battlefield there. Back in Falling Star Valley, Li Yan suspected that the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant’s yang energy had affected Feng Tao before her birth and caused her unusual spiritual roots.

• Zhu Luomu examined Fang Guangjun’s Storage Pouch while Feng Tao reflected on how close she and Zhang Ming had come to being killed.
• Feng Tao told Zhang Ming not to reveal what had happened in the Feng Lineage, and Zhang Ming agreed.
• Zhang Ming asked Feng Tao about Thousand Mountain Marsh, and she described its decayed treasures, dangerous demonic beasts, and lingering killing intent.
• Feng Tao revealed that her pregnant mother had entered the ancient battlefield and been affected by its killing intent, nearly suffering a miscarriage.
• Li Yan recalled Feng Tao’s unusual heavenly spiritual roots and suspected that energy from the Purple Divine Dragon Elephant’s skull had affected her mother while she was pregnant.

Li Yan created a vast, scorching desert in Tuban to help Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant forge a physical body using a crystalline skull. Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant began the dangerous ritual, and Li Yan watched as it endured the first signs of agony.

• Li Yan examined Feng Tao and found exceptionally pure fire-element spiritual power carrying a trace of Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant's aura.
• After three more months of cultivation, Li Yan went to a cave where Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant prepared to fuse with a crystalline skull and resolve to regain a physical body.
• Li Yan shaped five-element spiritual energy over Tuban's western grassland, transforming it into a desert rich in fire spiritual energy for Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant.
• Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant swallowed more than one thousand vicious souls, shrank, and entered the crystalline skull to begin its technique.
• Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant recited an incantation in its clan's language as purple light surged around it, and Li Yan saw its face contort in pain.

Li Yan watched the Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant separate and begin refining its three souls and seven spirits, then returned to cultivation after its consciousness fell silent. Meanwhile, Falling Star Valley faced escalating attacks, and its secluded Martial Uncle assessed the threat from four nonhuman clans as the crisis neared open conflict.

• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant separated its three souls and seven spirits, then began burning them to refine and fuse them as Li Yan watched.
• The Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant told Li Yan it could preserve only a sliver of consciousness, and Li Yan stayed by the crystal shell before returning to cultivation.
• Falling Star Valley suffered repeated ambushes, lost or saw twenty-six disciples go missing, and nearly ceased normal trade with the outside world.
• Lin Xinghe and his senior brother reported the crisis to their red-robed Martial Uncle, who judged that the Cangyu Sect, Snow Moon Wolf Clan, Riftwind Clan, and Night Fox Clan were nearing an assault.

Falling Star Valley’s red-robed elder planned for an imminent battle against the four clans while arranging for the sect’s survival if they lost. He ordered Xingming to lead elite disciples to safety in Saint Demon City and chose Lin Xinghe to remain and help wield the Sect Protection Array.

• The red-robed youth questioned the Qingfeng Sect’s uncertain support and ordered three trusted Foundation Establishment experts to investigate secretly.
• Xingming warned Lin Xinghe that Liupan Hall’s eager offer of aid might conceal danger, so the red-robed youth decided not to invite its cultivators into Falling Star Valley.
• The red-robed youth ordered Xingming to take elite disciples to a residence in Saint Demon City, revealing that he had prepared the refuge long ago.
• Xingming protested that Lin Xinghe should escape instead, but the red-robed youth insisted Xingming was the sect’s best hope and needed to leave.
• Lin Xinghe accepted his role in the coming fight and told Xingming that, as sect master, he was ordering him to lead the disciples away.

The red-robed youth ordered Falling Star Valley to prepare for a war against the Four Clans, including evacuating elite disciples and destroying the Earthfire Spirit Vein if necessary. Li Yan emerged from seclusion and learned that the valley was under severe pressure from enemy sects, with no reinforcements in sight.

• The red-robed youth told Lin Xinghe to evacuate disciples and detonate Falling Star Valley’s sect-protecting grand formation if the enemy could not be resisted.
• The red-robed youth ordered the affiliated lineages to join the battle and planned to keep two questionable Foundation Establishment cultivators under watch.
• The red-robed youth refused Xing Ming’s offer to accompany him while he investigated the Four Clans, and set a four-day contingency plan for destroying the Earthfire Spirit Vein and evacuating elite disciples.
• Li Yan stopped cultivating, questioned the Snow Mosquito King, and found the valley’s disciples anxious and short of supplies.
• Li Yan learned that Falling Star Valley was restricting even low-level disciples from leaving, and identified the Azure Fish Sect and the Riftwind Clan as the apparent attackers.

Li Yan investigated the secret summons of Falling Star Valley’s elite disciples by questioning Feng Tao, who concealed what she knew. After piecing together the clues, Li Yan concluded that the summons likely had another purpose beyond sending the valley’s best young cultivators on a mission.

• Li Yan decided to seek information from Feng Tao after learning that Falling Star Valley faced multiple attacking sects and could not easily trust outside allies.
• Feng Tao recalled receiving a green token with orders to return to a cave when it glowed red, and feared she had been selected for a dangerous secret mission.
• Li Yan, posing as Zhang Ming, asked Feng Tao about the sect’s standby order and the rumors surrounding the summoned disciples, but Feng Tao denied knowing anything.
• Feng Tao revealed through her reactions that she had been among the disciples summoned, and Li Yan left with this clue and the names of other attendees he had overheard.
• Li Yan reasoned that Falling Star Valley would not risk gathering its most promising young disciples for a single mission, and suspected the summons concealed another purpose.

Li Yan witnessed Falling Star Valley’s sect-protecting formation activate as its Grand Elder, Tian Xingzi, returned injured after investigating the four clans and escaping their pursuit. The pursuers gathered outside the valley and attacked the formation, while Tian Xingzi and Lin Xinghe headed to the Scripture Transmission Pavilion.

• Li Yan sensed five powerful Golden Core cultivators approaching Falling Star Valley as voices from the pursuing clans echoed across the valley.
• The valley’s sect-protecting formation activated, and Li Yan recognized the red-robed youth who appeared above it as Falling Star Valley’s Grand Elder.
• Lin Xinghe arrived, and Tian Xingzi told him that Rift Changfeng had advanced to the False Nascent Soul stage and injured him during the escape.
• Tian Xingzi explained that seven Golden Core cultivators served the four clans and identified the five pursuers closing in on the valley.
• The five pursuers reached the outer valley and attacked the formation, but Tian Xingzi dismissed their assault and went with Lin Xinghe to the Scripture Transmission Pavilion.

Lie Changfeng organized the four sects to gather elite disciples and attack Fallen Star Valley, while the allies argued over their contributions and shares. Lin Xinghe and the red-robed youth learned that most of the attackers had departed to gather reinforcements, leaving Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing behind as a major assault loomed.

• Lie Changfeng decided the four sects should attack Fallen Star Valley and assigned Ning Ying, Xue Qianzong, and the Cangyu Sect cultivators to gather their clans' disciples.
• Ning Ying agreed to bring only combat-capable Night Fox Clan disciples, insisting that her clan's intelligence work justified its share of the spoils, and Yuyang challenged her.
• Lie Changfeng settled the dispute, promising that the Riftwind Clan would draw more enemies while the other clans watched the Azurewind Sect and Sixfold Palace.
• Xue Qianzong, Yuyang, and Ning Ying departed to gather their forces, leaving Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing behind.
• Lin Xinghe and the red-robed youth arrived above the Scripture Transmission Pavilion and learned that the others had gone to gather manpower for a major assault on Fallen Star Valley.

Tianxingzi and Lin Xinghe prepared Falling Star Valley’s forces to face the allied enemy sects, while Tianxingzi warned the assembled cultivators that disobedience meant death. The chapter ended with Li Yan shaken by Tianxingzi’s overwhelming display of spiritual power.

• Lin Xinghe urged Tianxingzi to attack Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing, but Tianxingzi chose to let Lie Changfeng weaken the outer restrictions before launching a counterattack with the grand formation.
• Falling Star Valley gathered nearly a thousand cultivators and affiliated forces at the Scripture Transmission Pavilion, where Feng Tao learned that her parents and some of her Lineage remained at the Feng estate with an escape plan.
• Lin Xinghe told the assembled cultivators that the Cangyu Sect, Snow Moon Wolf Clan, Rifting Wind Clan, and Night Fox Clan had joined forces against Falling Star Valley, and that they were bound to fight alongside the sect.
• Tianxingzi identified himself and placed Lin Xinghe in command, then released a crushing aura and sent a blood-red “Die” into the minds of everyone present before withdrawing it.
• Li Yan, hidden in the crowd, was terrified when Tianxingzi’s spiritual attack reached his mind.

Li Yan was exposed by the red-robed youth and brought before him as Falling Star Valley prepared to ambush two enemy Golden Core cultivators. Li Yan explained that he had entered the sect to use its earthfire spiritual vein, but the red-robed youth questioned him about Fang Guangjun’s death.

• Li Yan instinctively counterattacked when the red-robed youth probed his Divine Sense, but he suppressed his spiritual power before it was noticed.
• The red-robed youth secretly identified Li Yan as suspicious and ordered Lin Xinghe to bring him to a courtyard deep inside Falling Star Valley.
• Lin Xinghe told the red-robed youth that the sect had positioned disciples along the enemy’s routes, while the red-robed youth prepared to attack Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing with the sect-protecting formation.
• The red-robed youth threatened to Soul Search Li Yan, who identified himself as Zhang Ming and said he had joined to borrow the earthfire spiritual vein for refining his natal magic treasure.
• Lin Xinghe recognized Zhang Ming as a witness to the Feng Family Fort incident and privately briefed the red-robed youth, who realized Zhang Ming’s true cultivation was far higher than it appeared.
• The red-robed youth asked whether Zhang Ming had killed Fang Guangjun, and Li Yan admitted that he had after Fang Guangjun tried to trade him to the alien races.

Li Yan concealed his true identity while answering the red-robed youth’s questions, but the youth suspected he was exceptionally powerful and coerced him into a bargain. After placing a restriction on Li Yan, the youth prepared Falling Star Valley’s defenses for an imminent battle against Cangyu Sect and its allies.

• Li Yan claimed he had captured Fang Guangjun by chance and invented the story that the Feng family patriarch had killed him, while the red-robed youth and Lin Xinghe questioned his motives.
• The red-robed youth mistook Li Yan for a cultivator near Golden Core Realm and proposed that he kill Foundation Establishment cultivators in exchange for free use of Falling Star Valley’s earth-fire spiritual vein.
• Li Yan agreed to kill four Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the red-robed youth planted a restriction in his dantian that would cause trouble if it remained for a year.
• After Li Yan left, the red-robed youth told Lin Xinghe that he would use Li Yan to weaken the enemy and ordered him to activate the sect-protecting grand formation when summoned.
• The red-robed youth went to inspect the outer valley’s formation as Lie Changfeng’s forces neared, while Lin Xinghe prepared to operate the formation’s attack restrictions.

Xing Ming hid in Falling Star Valley as the red-robed youth prepared to face the invading cultivators, while Li Yan tested the dangerous restriction placed in his body. Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing broke through the sect’s defenses, prompting Tianxingzi to emerge and fight them, but Li Yan doubted he could defeat either opponent.

• The red-robed youth told Xing Ming to evacuate the disciples once fighting began and said he would hold off the invaders with help from the array.
• Li Yan tested the deep-blue restriction in his Dantian, lost a tenth of his spiritual power, and stopped trying to break it after seeing that it could drain him dry.
• Lie Changfeng broke through Falling Star Valley’s outer protections, and Sang Dongxing advanced toward the mountain gate while challenging Tianxingzi and Lin Xinghe.
• Lie Changfeng opened a hole in the mountain gate, and Tianxingzi emerged in a streak of red light to attack the intruders.
• Li Yan watched Tianxingzi fight Sang Dongxing and a black-clad cultivator, observing that the two opponents’ speed and teamwork made them difficult to kill.

Tian Xingzi used Falling Star Valley’s formation and Star-Shattering Flame to kill Sang Dongxing while Lie Changfeng escaped. After witnessing the flame’s power, Li Yan feared the restriction inside him could not be removed and resolved to help Falling Star Valley win the coming battle.

• Tian Xingzi’s pale-blue starlight slowed Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing, giving him an opening to attack Sang Dongxing.
• Tian Xingzi struck Sang Dongxing with Star-Shattering Flame, killing him as Lie Changfeng fled.
• Lin Xinghe ordered the stewards to resume patrols while the disciples celebrated Sang Dongxing’s death.
• Li Yan recognized the flame’s aura from the blue light in his dantian and feared that Tian Xingzi’s restriction could not be removed.
• Li Yan decided to help Falling Star Valley gain the upper hand, then recalled sensing cultivators flying toward the valley’s northern part.

Tian Xingzi survived a deadly confrontation with Lie Changfeng and Sang Dongxing by activating Falling Star Valley’s grand formation and using his Shattering Star Fire. Though badly wounded and weakened, he killed Lie Changfeng’s physical body, while Lie Changfeng’s devil core escaped after detonating his natal magic treasure.

• Li Yan sensed Feng Tao and other cultivators vanish and wondered whether they had used a teleportation array.
• Tian Xingzi returned to a secret chamber with a severed arm and a gaping chest wound, then used medicine to heal himself.
• Tian Xingzi told Lin Xinghe that Lie Changfeng had fled severely injured and could not join the coming battles.
• Tian Xingzi explained that he had used the Star Sea Abyss restriction and Shattering Star Fire to kill Sang Dongxing and drive Lie Changfeng away.
• Tian Xingzi pursued Lie Changfeng for more than six thousand li and, after a fierce fight, dismembered his body at the cost of another arm and severe injuries.
• Lie Changfeng’s devil core escaped after he detonated his natal magic treasure, further injuring Tian Xingzi.