Chapter Summaries

The female cultivator surnamed Yang concealed that she had already found the Gate of Life, delaying the group’s entry until she recovered her spiritual power. Meanwhile, Mu Guyue sealed herself inside a cave to purge the lust poison, but the golden-robed middle-aged man found her hiding place and began breaking through her defenses.

• The female cultivator surnamed Yang pretended that her compass had not revealed the Gate of Life and staged a second attempt at breaking the restriction so she could recover before opening the cave abode.
• Mu Guyue reached the cave, used six beast bones to conceal its entrance, and began circulating her demonic source power to force out the poison of lust.
• The golden-robed middle-aged man identified the cave’s hidden entrance and attacked Mu Guyue’s illusion formation with his golden spear.
• The golden-robed middle-aged man summoned an emerald seal into his brow and fired emerald beams at the stone wall.

Mu Guyue’s defenses weakened as she struggled against the lust poison, while the female cultivator surnamed Yang prepared to break the restriction on Flowing Wave Cave. As Yang worked the formation, Mu Guyue’s barrier shattered and an enemy attacked her from behind.

• The golden dragon devastated the resentful ghosts as the stone around Mu Guyue’s cave turned green and her beast-bone formation cracked.
• The female cultivator surnamed Yang recovered, arranged eighteen flags and five nail-streaks, and began tracking the hidden Gate of Life in the cave manor’s restriction.
• Mu Guyue regained awareness more often as she expelled the poison, then felt the Grievance Locking Heaven Net breaking and prepared to defend herself despite her depleted magic power.
• Mu Guyue noticed movement behind her, slashed the moss-covered wall, and exposed the blackish-brown rock beneath it.
• The Grievance Locking Heaven Net shattered, and its backlash bloodied Mu Guyue and hurled her through the air as a voice laughed, “Let’s see where you can run now!”

Mu Guyue escaped the golden-robed middle-aged man into an abandoned cave abode, where she tried to recover from her injuries and spring poison while he searched for her in vain. Elsewhere, the female cultivator surnamed Yang identified the life gate among the cave entrance’s restrictions, just as Mu Guyue struck a moss-covered wall.

• Mu Guyue was teleported from the small cave into an abandoned cave abode and discovered its depleted defensive formations and empty rooms.
• Mu Guyue hid in an illusion formation in the spirit plant garden to treat her spring poison and injuries, while keeping watch for the Chaotic Heaven Mysterious Gold Dragon.
• The golden-robed middle-aged man entered the small cave, failed to find Mu Guyue, and collapsed the cave and much of the surrounding mountain in anger.
• The golden-robed middle-aged man left the abyss to hunt and slaughter its inhabitants, unaware that the damaged cave’s moss and stone wall were gradually restoring themselves.
• The female cultivator surnamed Yang fired a nail-light at a shifting point on the cave gate and identified the life gate restriction as the point was struck.
• Mu Guyue slashed her blade toward the moss-covered stone wall inside the cave.

Yang’s attempt to break the cave restriction missed its mark when the door unexpectedly shook, triggering a deadly change that unleashed Dark Spirit Demon Bats. The cultivators fled into separate passageways as the bats prepared to hunt them, with Fifth Brother determined to pursue Song Rongdao’s group.

• Yang’s nail-light struck the cave door instead of the living gate, causing the plaza to darken, the cave doors to vanish, and the passage to collapse.
• Xing Ming and his four companions emerged from the disintegrating passage and confronted Song Rongdao’s group, while eleven new passageways appeared around them.
• A swarm of Dark Spirit Demon Bats, including five four-winged beasts, descended, and both groups fled into separate passageways.
• Yan blamed Yang for triggering the restriction, but Song Rongdao urged the group to stay united as they entered a passage together.
• The bat leader ordered Second Brother to pursue Xing Ming’s group and planned to hunt Song Rongdao’s group himself with Fifth Brother.
• Second Brother suggested sparing one cultivator to bring others back, but the leader refused, fearing stronger reinforcements could destroy them.

Li Yan, Song Rongdao, and the other cultivators were forced into the undersea cave’s branching passages as swarms of Dark Spirit Demon Bats attacked them. Their groups were split apart, and Li Yan continued fighting alone amid the growing danger.

• The lean, short blue-faced man led Fifth Brother and a swarm of two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats into the passage after Song Rongdao’s group.
• Fifth Brother attacked Song Rongdao with sound waves, but Song Rongdao countered and revealed his own skill with sound-based attacks.
• The young man surnamed Bai fought another four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat while the cultivator surnamed Yan and the female cultivator surnamed Yang struggled against the coordinated swarm.
• Song Rongdao’s group was driven deeper into the branching passage as more two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats poured in.
• Li Yan’s group was divided among three four-winged attackers and dense swarms, forcing its members to retreat separately.
• Li Yan fought off the surrounding two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, smashing those he touched into blood.

Li Yan used Night Concealment to slip away from the battle with the Dark Spirit Demon Bats and investigate the branching tunnels. He encountered the fleeing female cultivator surnamed Yang, who was surrounded by bats and fought forward with her Marsh Thunder Bear puppet as she searched for a way out.

• Xing Ming and the others were forced to battle the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats while being driven deeper into the tunnels.
• Li Yan retreated into a side passage, vanished with Night Concealment, and headed deeper to investigate the tunnels.
• Li Yan saw the female cultivator surnamed Yang fleeing through the passages with Dark Spirit Demon Bats pursuing her.
• A swarm of Dark Spirit Demon Bats blocked Yang from ahead, revealing that the passages connected and that they intended to capture her.
• Yang summoned her Marsh Thunder Bear and used her green cloak to fend off attacks while the puppet fought through the bats and she searched the cave walls for a way out.

Yang was overwhelmed by the Dark Spirit Demon Bats’ self-mutilating attack as her Marsh Thunder Bear and spiritual power faltered. Just as the bats closed in, an unknown cultivator arrived, asked whether she knew Shuang Chongshan, and began fighting them off.

• Yang used spirit stones and pills to sustain the azure cloak, then stopped to refine the spiritual power overwhelming her meridians.
• Yang inserted ten mid-grade spirit stones into the Marsh Thunder Bear, but the Dark Spirit Demon Bats began spitting black threads that bound and weakened it at the cost of their own lives.
• Yang resumed defending herself despite agonizing meridian pain, but her spiritual power faltered as the bats swarmed toward her.
• Yang prepared to die on her own terms, but a dark figure appeared and asked whether she knew Shuang Chongshan.
• The figure attacked with mountainlike palm shadows, killing bats while their black threads burned away on contact, and Yang recognized the name he had spoken.

Li Yan captured the female cultivator surnamed Yang and her Marsh Thunder Bear, then searched two Dark Spirit Demon Bats for information while making his way through the passages. After sensing a powerful battle ahead, he hid and discovered the young man surnamed Bai fighting a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat.

• Li Yan recognized that the Marsh Thunder Bear used a formation similar to the Three-Legged Azure Luan and tested the female cultivator surnamed Yang by asking about Shuang Lianzhou and Mingling.
• The female cultivator surnamed Yang attacked Li Yan, but he defeated her, captured her, and disabled and took her Marsh Thunder Bear.
• Li Yan fled through the passages, used Soul Search on two Dark Spirit Demon Bats, and sensed powerful spiritual fluctuations ahead.
• Li Yan concealed himself near the approaching battle and saw the bloodied young man surnamed Bai trying to escape a swarm led by a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat.

The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat drove the young man surnamed Bai into an ambush, where the surrounding bats’ sound-wave formation wounded him and forced him to reveal his Azure Cloud Sparrow form. The bat captured him with a mysterious force, extracted his demonic core, and took his Storage Pouches, including the soul-protecting treasure.

• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat attacked the young man surnamed Bai with a sound wave, but golden patterns from his green belt protected his sea of consciousness.
• The two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats surrounded the young man surnamed Bai and formed spinning black spiked orbs that repeatedly injured him through his dark robe.
• The young man surnamed Bai transformed into an Azure Cloud Sparrow and escaped the encirclement, but a force in another corridor dragged him back toward the four-winged bat.
• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat seized the Azure Cloud Sparrow and used the voice of “Come, come, come!” to extract his demonic core and essence blood.
• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat took the Azure Cloud Sparrow’s three Storage Pouches and recovered the green soul-protecting treasure.

Li Yan confronted the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat after discovering that the creature was luring cultivators into a dangerous tunnel. Their first clash left neither with an advantage, and Li Yan struggled to escape the bat’s pursuit.

• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat divided the Azure Cloud Sparrow’s corpse, ordered his clansmen to share the larger portion, and devoured the rest.
• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat exposed Li Yan’s hiding place and sent the two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats to attack him.
• Li Yan dodged through the bats and struck at the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat, but the bat caught his fingers in its jaws and the clash killed more than ten lesser bats.
• The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat used a sonic attack, but Li Yan resisted it and answered with a barrage of ice cones.
• Li Yan realized the bat’s speed and strength made it difficult to shake off, while the bat remained astonished by Li Yan’s toughness and powerful Divine Sense.

Li Yan defeated the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" with a carefully staged attack using "Soul-Slaying Beneath the Waves" and the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike. He then caught the creature’s escaping soul and ordered it to make the surrounding two-winged bats retreat.

• Li Yan and the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" traded spells through the passageways until the demon bat underestimated his repeated use of basic techniques.
• Li Yan disguised the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike as "Returning Tide Technique," then struck the demon bat with a second hidden spike and pinned it in midair.
• The four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" began to die, but Li Yan sensed its soul escaping and halted it with another Guiyi Water-Parting Spike.
• The nearly transparent soul begged Li Yan to spare it and offered to guide him and his companions safely out of the place.
• Li Yan ordered the soul to make the two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" retreat as the swarm charged toward him.

Li Yan learned that the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat had survived by using its clan’s soul-protecting art and discovered that the bats were driving cultivators toward three passages with a power even Nascent Soul cultivators could not resist. He went with the bat to stop the ambushes, while Xing Ming sensed a change in his pursuers’ behavior at a passage entrance.

• Li Yan withdrew the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, and the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat returned its soul to its body and stopped the two-winged bats’ attack.
• The bat explained that its clan’s Ling Soul, Dark Soul art let its soul leave and return to an intact body, though only its kind could cultivate the technique.
• Li Yan learned that the bats were forcing cultivators toward three passages containing a power that even Nascent Soul cultivators could not resist.
• Li Yan ordered the bat to lead him to the other passages so he could stop the attacks and save Xing Ming and the others.
• Xing Ming, separated from Feng Moru and worried about Zhang Ming and Xuan Caijun, reached a passage entrance as his pursuers slowed and the four-winged bat suddenly accelerated toward him.

Star Moth fought off the Dark Spirit Demon Bats until they forced him into a passage that clouded his consciousness. Li Yan pulled him back and revealed that he had captured the bats’ eldest brother, who ordered the others to stop attacking.

• Star Moth realized the bats were trying to drive him into a passage and fought their coordinated attacks while searching for a way out.
• The bats surrounded Star Moth with spiritual-power-dispersing threads and spiked spheres, forcing him to retreat into the passage.
• A voice lured Star Moth into a daze, but someone shouted for him to wake and pulled him back with a spiritual-power rope.
• The four-winged bat angrily demanded that the blurry figure release its eldest brother, whom Li Yan had bound and wounded.
• The captured eldest brother said he had made agreements with Fellow Daoist Zhang and ordered Third Brother and the other bats to stop.

Li Yan and Xing Ming reached the final passage, where Song Rongdao was fighting Jiang Baibi and the Dark Spirit Demon Bats. Li Yan sent Meng Zhiyuan’s clansmen to seize Jiang Baibi’s seven-colored lamp, then continued searching with Xing Ming, while Song Rongdao prepared a desperate attack and noticed their arrival.

• Li Yan released Xing Ming and, with Meng Zhiyuan’s guidance, hurried toward the final passage while a swarm of Dark Spirit Demon Bats followed them.
• Li Yan and Xing Ming found Jiang Baibi fighting with a seven-colored lamp, and Li Yan ordered Meng Zhiyuan’s clansmen to kill him and secure the treasure.
• Xing Ming followed Li Yan onward after learning that three strange passages could kill even Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Song Rongdao fought the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat and its clansmen with the Seven-Colored Glazed Lamp, planning to unleash its peak power in a final assault.
• Song Rongdao sensed Li Yan and Xing Ming arrive as the battle reached its decisive moment.

Li Yan and Xing Ming rescued Feng Moru while confronting the Dark Spirit Demon Bats, but learned that Xuan Caijun had been killed in one of the final passages. Li Yan agreed to honor his bargain with Meng Zhiyuan and follow the bats toward the exit to exchange the seven-colored lamp for their captive.

• Song Rongdao mistook Li Yan and Xing Ming for cultivators fleeing the Dark Spirit Demon Bats, then was attacked by the bats led by Meng Zhiyuan’s Fifth Brother.
• Li Yan, Xing Ming, and Meng Zhiyuan found Feng Moru gravely wounded and rescued him from two four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats and their swarm.
• Li Yan asked Meng Zhiyuan about his missing companion, and a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat said Xuan Caijun had died and his golden core had been taken.
• Meng Zhiyuan explained that the power in the final three passages could not be controlled and that no one could retrieve a golden core or blood essence drawn inside.
• Li Yan agreed to exchange the seven-colored lamp magic treasure for the captive at the exit, and Meng Zhiyuan led the group onward with a swarm of Dark Spirit Demon Bats following behind.

Li Yan recognized Yan Tantuo as the cultivator who had once preyed on Zhao Min and left him to be killed by the Dark Spirit Demon Bats. The group reached another corridor, where Li Yan challenged the bats’ claim that it led to an exit and demanded assurances before opening the restriction.

• Yan Tantuo encountered Li Yan’s group while fleeing the Dark Spirit Demon Bats and asked to join them in exchange for information about the cave abode.
• Li Yan recognized Yan Tantuo’s name from Zhao Min’s account and pretended they had a connection through a past failed mission to capture her.
• Yan Tantuo realized that the bats had encircled him alongside Li Yan’s group and tried to win their trust by blaming Song Rongdao and offering to lead them against Black Forest Manor.
• Li Yan refused to help Yan Tantuo, and the Dark Spirit Demon Bats attacked him as Li Yan’s group continued onward.
• At another corridor, Meng Zhiyuan urged the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat to open the restriction, but Li Yan questioned whether the passage truly led out and demanded guarantees.

Li Yan negotiated a cautious exchange with the Dark Spirit Demon Bats, opening a restriction passage to the underwater entrance so his companions could test whether it was safe. Feng Moru confirmed the passage was real, and Xing Ming prepared to leave while Li Yan remained behind to question Meng Zhiyuan.

• Li Yan proposed using voice transmissions and gestures to communicate through the one-way passage, then arranged for his companions to leave one at a time while he stayed with Meng Zhiyuan.
• Xing Ming offered to stay behind in Li Yan's place, but Li Yan explained that he needed to question the bats about the cave residence, its guardians, and the dangerous corridors.
• The female four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat opened the restriction passage, and two more four-winged bats arrived with the Seven-Colored Glazed Lamp, which Xing Ming inspected and accepted.
• Feng Moru entered the passage and used coded gestures and voice transmissions with Xing Ming to test the route and check for illusions.
• Feng Moru returned in the image with red coral and settled on a reef, confirming the passage was real, and Li Yan told Xing Ming to go out while he conducted another test.

Li Yan remained in the cave abode with Meng Zhiyuan and the Dark Spirit Demon Bats after Xing Ming and Feng Moru escaped. He learned the cave’s history, then used a suspected poison to keep Meng Zhiyuan’s clansmen from attacking as he reached the exit.

• Xing Ming left through the cave wall after promising to gather reinforcements if Li Yan failed to return within an hour.
• Li Yan pressed the bound Meng Zhiyuan to explain the cave abode’s origins and its dangers before releasing him.
• Meng Zhiyuan revealed that the cave belonged to Venerable Duanmu, a Spirit Transformation cultivator, and that the final corridors contained his lingering divine soul imprint.
• Li Yan freed Meng Zhiyuan but showed a glowing medicinal pellet, warning that it was the sole antidote to a precautionary poison.
• The Dark Spirit Demon Bats rushed at Li Yan near the exit, but Meng Zhiyuan ordered them to stop.

Li Yan negotiated with Meng Zhiyuan and handed over the antidote, but Meng Zhiyuan used a restriction to transport Li Yan and his allies into a cave abode. Meng Zhiyuan revealed that his clan was guarding the site and had only about forty years before the failing formations might leave them to die.

• Li Yan and Meng Zhiyuan agreed that Li Yan would give him the antidote after they left the restricted passage.
• Li Yan emerged outside the cave and gave Meng Zhiyuan the pill, which Meng Zhiyuan swallowed as his spiritual power recovered.
• As Li Yan approached Xing Ming and Feng Moru, Meng Zhiyuan ordered a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat to activate a restriction that swept them into water columns.
• The restriction transported Li Yan, Xing Ming, and Feng Moru into a cave abode, while Meng Zhiyuan and his clan remained outside.
• Meng Zhiyuan explained that the restriction had been designed to send powerful intruders into the cave abode and said the clan's formations might fail within forty years.
• Meng Zhiyuan's Fourth Sister said that two subsidiary cave abodes had weakening restrictions.

Meng Zhiyuan believed the cave abode’s formations would trap and kill the three cultivators who entered, while Mu Guyue recovered from the lust poison and began healing with Black Jade Mystic Dragon Grass. Li Yan explored the apparently deserted cave abode and realized Meng Zhiyuan had sent him into a potentially deadly cultivator’s lair.

• Meng Zhiyuan ordered his companions to guard the area and inspected the Storage Pouches for soul-healing pills and spirit stones.
• Mu Guyue recovered from the lust poison, discovered her injuries had worsened, and chose to stay in the spirit plant garden to heal.
• Mu Guyue confirmed the Black Jade Mystic Dragon Grass was genuine and used its energy to begin treating her wounds.
• Li Yan arrived in an empty cultivation chamber, concealed himself, and explored adjoining rooms.
• Li Yan recognized the location as a powerful cultivator’s cave abode and understood that Meng Zhiyuan had used its teleportation point as a trap.