Recaps

Qi Yun failed to break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer despite repeated attempts, then learned that the Hall of All Dharmas would open in three days. He decided to compete for a place in the hall, where insights on balancing the five organs’ Qi might help him advance.

• Qi Yun attempted to harmonize the Qi of his five organs and form an internal circuit, but his breakthrough failed and depleted his True Qi.
• Qi Yun reflected on his stalled cultivation and the quiet six months since his conversation with Li Chong, then resumed meditating to recover.
• The Great Void Jade Tally informed Qi Yun that the Hall of All Dharmas would open in three days.
• Qi Yun read about the Hall of All Dharmas and realized its cultivation insights might help him reach the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• Qi Yun resolved to compete against disciples from all the outer prefectures for a place in the hall and began preparing.

Qi Yun arrived at the Hall of All Dharmas, where Yue Rong revealed he had discarded his reserved place so he could compete with Qi Yun. When a stone stele announced the challenge for entry, Qi Yun suspected the Dharma Enlightenment Bell lay beyond the Holy Sect.

• News spread that the Hall of All Dharmas would open, offering fifty places for Outer Prefecture disciples to compete over.
• Yue Rong mocked Shen Fan and welcomed Qi Yun, acknowledging him as champion and explaining that he had thrown away his reserved place to challenge him again.
• Yue Rong declared that Qi Yun would be his first whetstone on the path to becoming a supreme great devil.
• A hundred-foot stone stele rose before the Hall of All Dharmas and displayed a verse describing how to obtain a Dharma Enlightenment Bell.
• Qi Yun studied the verse and guessed that it meant leaving the Holy Sect.

Ding Tai explained the rules for finding one of fifty Dharma Enlightenment Bells and gave Qi Yun a [Star Guidance] talisman as a privilege for being the previous Human Origin Champion. Qi Yun deduced a bell was hidden in a pool at Clear Spring Mountain and headed out, unaware that disciples were plotting to ambush him for his talisman.

• Ding Tai announced that contestants had to retrieve one of fifty Dharma Enlightenment Bells, with the first to return securing a place in the [Hall of All Dharmas].
• Ding Tai recognized Qi Yun as the previous Human Origin Champion and gave him a [Star Guidance] talisman that could return him to the sect from within five thousand li.
• Yue Rong told Qi Yun that someone in the inner residence seemed to be protecting him, and Qi Yun wondered whether someone had taken a fancy to him.
• Qi Yun recalled the verse clue and deduced that a bell was likely hidden in an old pool at Clear Spring Mountain, nine hundred li west of the sect.
• Several disciples followed Qi Yun and planned to seize his [Star Guidance] talisman once he left the sect gates.

Qi Yun trapped Chu Tiankuang and his four companions in a spreading cloud of corpse qi and attacked them with four bronze wolfhounds. The five fled the puppets, only to realize the mist was following them and that Qi Yun intended to trap them until they died.

• Chu Tiankuang tracked Qi Yun into a clearing, where Qi Yun filled the forest with dense Yin Baleful Intent Corpse Qi.
• Qi Yun sent a bronze wolfhound through the mist, then revealed three more that surrounded Chu Tiankuang and his companions.
• The four wolfhounds relentlessly attacked, draining the five disciples' True Qi and leaving them injured.
• Chu Tiankuang ordered his companions to retreat, and the group fled without the wolfhounds pursuing them.
• The mist continued to grow denser as the five ran, and one disciple realized Qi Yun's cloud was following them.
• Four pairs of crimson eyes appeared in the mist ahead, ready to attack the trapped group again.

Qi Yun used his bronze wolfhounds and corpse Qi fog to wear down Chu Tiankuang’s group before attacking with his newly mastered Iron Sand Method. Chu Tiankuang and the others were overwhelmed by the iron-sand fists, and the chapter ended with Qi Yun’s assault swallowing them in the fog.

• Qi Yun controlled four bronze wolfhounds to attack Chu Tiankuang and his four companions from coordinated, unexpected angles.
• As the wolfhounds took heavy damage, Qi Yun summoned a vast cloud of refined steel sand with the Iron Sand Method.
• Chu Tiankuang killed the last bronze wolfhound and, badly wounded and nearly out of True Qi, began leading his group away.
• Qi Yun launched iron-sand fists at Chu Tiankuang’s group, killing two disciples with the barrage.
• Chu Tiankuang tried to defend himself and demanded to know how many Law Techniques Qi Yun knew, but the iron fists continued to pound him and his group.

Qi Yun killed Chu Tiankuang and his four companions, then found a metal-element spiritual item in their Storage Bags and used it to update [Iron Sand Method]. He left with the stronger technique as other disciples retreated from the area, fearing the unknown attacker.

• Qi Yun used iron sand to retrieve the Storage Bags from Chu Tiankuang and his four companions, then killed Chu Tiankuang when he was still alive.
• Lin Zhen and the other Wuji Sacred Sect disciples found the mangled corpses and fled rather than risk meeting the martial cultivator who had killed them.
• Qi Yun washed the Storage Bags and found little of value until he opened the last one and discovered a golden Buddha on a jade throne.
• Qi Yun refined the metal-element spiritual item and directed its Dao intent into [Iron Sand Method], completing a minor update.

After the Iron Sand Method update removed its mental strain, Qi Yun formed an iron-sand greatsword and briefly flew, but Primordial magnetism true gang drained his True Qi too quickly. As he headed toward Jing'an Town for the struggle over the Dharma Enlightenment Bell, his iron-sand decoy was caught in an ambush while the real Qi Yun remained elsewhere.

• Qi Yun tested the improved Iron Sand Method and discovered he could control intricate iron-sand forms without mental fatigue.
• Qi Yun shaped the iron sand into a greatsword, mounted it, and rose more than ten meters before Primordial magnetism true gang forced him to land.
• Qi Yun decided his abundant True Qi could eventually make sword flight a trump card and set off toward the Dharma Enlightenment Bell struggle.
• Sun Changxing, Li Ran, and their companions sprang a trap on a straw-caped figure they believed was Qi Yun at Jing'an Town, demanding the Star Guidance Talisman.
• The trapped figure collapsed into pitch-black iron sand, and Li Ran confronted Jiang Mingyong about losing track of Qi Yun near a grape grove.

Qi Yun entered Jing'an Town and attacked the people who had tried to capture him, quickly killing Li Ran and Sun Changxing. As he prepared to finish off the remaining attackers, more than a hundred Wuji Sacred Sect disciples gathered in a stalemate beside Old Dragon Pool.

• Qi Yun slipped into Jing'an Town while Li Ran and Jiang Mingyuan argued over their failed plan to capture him.
• Sun Changxing sensed danger and tried to warn the others, but Qi Yun killed him with a Sword Qi strike.
• Qi Yun attacked the group with iron-sand spikes and bone skulls, blinding Li Ran before killing him with Sword Qi.
• Jiang Mingyuan rallied the six survivors, but Qi Yun summoned bronze wolfhounds, an iron-sand double, and three skulls, then ordered that none be left alive.
• More than a hundred Wuji Sacred Sect disciples gathered at Old Dragon Pool, but none dared enter its waters first.

The Outer Prefecture disciples plunged into Old Dragon Pool to search for the Dharma Enlightenment Bell while Du Fei waited to ambush whoever found it. Yue Rong arrived and mistook Fei Nanyun for Qi Yun, while the real Qi Yun watched from a cliff and prepared an attack that he said would bring the Outer Prefectures peace.

• A bald Outer Prefecture disciple proposed a gentleman's agreement, then jumped into Old Dragon Pool, prompting most of the others to follow.
• Du Fei chose to wait on shore and planned to steal the Dharma Enlightenment Bell from whoever returned with it.
• A hidden attacker killed Du Fei, and Yue Rong leaped from a cliff, mistaking the assassin for Qi Yun.
• Yue Rong shattered Fei Nanyun's blade, exposed his identity, and killed him after realizing he had been fooled.
• Qi Yun watched from a cliff in his Fresh Breeze form and raised ten black spheres around Old Dragon Pool.
• Qi Yun pressed his palms together, releasing an invisible fluctuation.

Qi Yun poisoned Old Dragon Pool and the surrounding area with Six Desires Bewitching Powder, driving the outer court disciples into uncontrolled desires and collecting their abandoned Dharma Enlightenment Bells. Yue Rong resisted the poison enough to confront Qi Yun, and their uneasy conversation ended with Yue Rong preparing to fight.

• Qi Yun crushed iron-sand spheres containing Six Desires Bewitching Powder and spread the poison across Old Dragon Pool with the help of three skulls emitting Yin Baleful Intent Corpse Qi.
• Yue Rong succumbed to the powder’s influence and attacked the outer court disciples on the shore, while disciples emerging from the pool swallowed the poison dissolved in its water.
• As the poisoned disciples abandoned their Dharma Enlightenment Bells, Qi Yun used iron-sand tentacles to retrieve them and added more than twenty to his Storage Bag.
• Yue Rong recovered enough to launch a surprise attack on Qi Yun, but Qi Yun evaded the blow with the Clear Breeze Technique.
• Yue Rong explained that his demon body and inherited cultivation made him more resistant to the poison, and Qi Yun acknowledged that Yue Rong had advantages unavailable to outer court disciples.
• Qi Yun offered to share some Dharma Enlightenment Bells and end the conflict, but Yue Rong laughed and readied himself to fight.

Qi Yun fought Yue Rong through a fierce battle, using iron-sand techniques and a concealed Sword Qi strike to defeat him. Before Qi Yun could act further, a mysterious power took Yue Rong away, leaving Qi Yun to suspect another Foundation Establishment True Person was involved.

• Qi Yun evaded Yue Rong's demon-body attacks and used bone skulls and an iron-sand fist to hold him at bay.
• Yue Rong unleashed the Metal-Burning Demon Flame, forcing Qi Yun to spend much of his True Qi maintaining an iron-sand barrier.
• After the flame died out, Qi Yun struck Yue Rong's Qi pathway with concealed Sword Qi, disrupting his Yao Qi and Blood Qi and knocking him unconscious.
• A vast power appeared and made Yue Rong's body vanish before Qi Yun could act further.
• Qi Yun found the marks where Yue Rong had fallen and wondered if another Foundation Establishment True Person had intervened.

After defeating Yue Rong, Qi Yun used the outer residence disciples’ awe to escape with the Dharma Enlightenment Bells, then disguised himself in a nearby town to recover before returning to the Wuji Sacred Sect. There, he sensed the familiar presence of Yao Qi.

• The outer residence disciples called Qi Yun their champion after seeing him defeat Yue Rong, and he threw them twenty Dharma Enlightenment Bells to distract them.
• Qi Yun escaped while the disciples fought over the bells, then traveled away from the usual route back to the Wuji Sacred Sect.
• Fearing ambushes near the sect gates, Qi Yun chose a prosperous mortal town where he could recover safely.
• Qi Yun changed into a blue-gray outfit and disguised himself as a wealthy young scholar.
• As Qi Yun prepared to enter the town, he sensed a familiar presence and wondered if it was Yao Qi.

Qi Yun sensed a faint, unusually pure Yao Qi in Great Pond Town and followed it to a dying child whose mother begged the town for help. After witnessing the woman’s desperate prayer to save her son, Qi Yun remained outside her home in the rain.

• Qi Yun first avoided pursuing the injured yao, then changed his mind when he sensed an extraordinary bloodline in its Yao Qi.
• Qi Yun rested at the Zi Study Hall inn and heard a woman begging the townspeople to help her sick child.
• The townspeople refused to help the woman after seeing the unnaturally silent child, and she carried him home through the rain.
• Qi Yun followed the woman to her poor home and saw that the child was barely breathing.
• The woman knelt and begged the heavens to take her life instead of her son's, while Qi Yun watched from outside.

Qi Yun ambushed a wounded demon child before it could drain a dying boy’s vitality and discovered that his Basic Sword Qi could exploit the sword wounds restraining the demon. After killing it and refining its spiritual treasure, Qi Yun saw Basic Sword Qi reach full progress and begin turning gold, hinting at a major upgrade.

• The demon child entered the hut and prepared to steal the dying boy’s vitality to heal its injuries.
• Qi Yun trapped the demon child with an iron hand and talismans, then drew it outside and revealed he intended to use it to refine his techniques.
• The demon child mocked Qi Yun, but his Basic Sword Qi aggravated the sword wounds across its body.
• Qi Yun struck the demon child’s forehead with Sword Qi, causing the demon child to crumble and vanish.
• Qi Yun refined the demon child’s spiritual treasure, and the Law Technique Panel showed Basic Sword Qi at 100% with its lettering turning gold.

Qi Yun’s major Law Technique update replaced Basic Sword Qi with Southern Ming Sword Devil and transformed his body. After testing the new art, he killed the demon child, helped stabilize the rescued child, and left to seek spiritual treasures for Foundation Establishment.

• Qi Yun received the Southern Ming Sword Devil Law Technique as Basic Sword Qi was removed, and the new Dao intent refined his physique.
• Qi Yun practiced the new art, wrapped himself in Southern Ming Li Fire, and unleashed a powerful crescent of Sword Qi.
• Qi Yun realized the major update let him fully understand the Law Technique’s principles and resolved to search for rare spiritual treasures.
• Qi Yun saw that the child’s breathing had steadied after the demon child’s death and gave the child spirit medicine.
• Qi Yun told the woman she had earned the medicine for helping lure the demon child, then vanished as a breeze.

Qi Yun entered the Hall of All Dharmas and found a passage lined with flames containing labeled insights from past cultivators. Suspecting the insights hid traps, he concealed himself and prepared to use Six Desires Bewitching Powder on a fellow disciple to test them.

• Ding Tai collected Qi Yun’s Dharma Enlightenment Bell and welcomed him into the Hall of All Dharmas.
• Qi Yun passed through the hall’s doors and arrived in an ancient passage lined with flames containing cultivators’ insights.
• Qi Yun suspected the insights were traps and hid while waiting for other outer residence disciples to arrive.
• When no one dared test the insights, Qi Yun spotted a lone disciple examining green flame and took out Six Desires Bewitching Powder.

Qi Yun spent more than twenty days observing disciples who used the Hall of All Dharmas’ candle flames, finding no obvious ill effects before choosing Wei Zhen’s insights on reaching the Qi Refining Fifth Layer. The insights triggered his breakthrough, and the chapter left him newly established at the fifth layer.

• Feng Yang touched a candle flame and instantly mastered the Blood Corpse Incantation, praising the Hall of All Dharmas.
• Qi Yun secretly observed disciples taking candle flames for more than twenty days and recorded their reactions without finding anything unusual.
• Qi Yun concluded that each disciple could take only one candle flame and chose Wei Zhen’s insights on breaking through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• Qi Yun touched the flame, absorbed Wei Zhen’s insights, and broke through as his five kinds of Qi formed an inner lesser celestial circuit.

Qi Yun broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer with help from a candle in the Hall of All Dharmas, then discovered and burned away a hidden heart-thought. He realized the candle was part of a possession method and suspected the inner court hall might be a testing ground for it.

• Qi Yun used Wei Zhen's insights from a candle flame to break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• The Skull Incantation's skulls warned Qi Yun of a covert attack, so he transformed into the Southern Ming Sword Devil and searched his sea of consciousness.
• Qi Yun found and burned a hidden heart-thought, intercepting information that identified it as part of the possession method External Devil Stains One's Own Dao.
• Qi Yun learned that the method could steer a host's future cultivation path and help its original owner recover memories of past lives.
• As he prepared to leave, Qi Yun wondered whether the inner court Hall of All Dharmas contained stronger heart-thoughts and served as an experiment for the Holy Sect.

After the Contest of All Dharmas, Qi Yun assessed his gains and weighed the danger of Li Chong’s proposed ambush against Yue Rong. During four months of cultivation, he refined [Iron Sand Method] into version 4.0, which let him temporarily strengthen and heat iron sand into steel capable of striking at Qi Refining Third Layer or matching a cultivator of his own level.

• Qi Yun returned to his residence with [Southern Ming Sword Devil] and Qi Refining Fifth Layer cultivation, and considered his chances of winning the Earth Origin Champion title.
• Qi Yun judged that Li Chong’s proposed ambush on Yue Rong was too dangerous to attempt unless it could be carried out without a trace.
• Four months passed as Qi Yun refined [Iron Sand Method] to version 4.0 and learned to turn iron sand into temporary hundred-tempered steel while casting the technique.
• Qi Yun tested the strengthened iron sand by forming a steel ball and hurling it into a wall with force comparable to a Qi Refining Third Layer cultivator’s strike.
• Qi Yun heated the iron sand until it glowed scarlet, formed it into a blazing saber, and split an upgraded rockery with a slash matching a cultivator of his own level.

Qi Yun tested the transformed Iron Sand Method and considered combining it with talismans before the Holy Sect announced a mandatory campaign against the Zombie Alliance at Great Black Mountain. He joined the mass departure of outer prefecture disciples, planning to use the battle to strengthen his Skull Incantation.

• Qi Yun tested his hundred-refined-steel iron sand and found it could withstand high temperatures and threaten ordinary cultivators.
• Qi Yun used Evil-Dispelling Baleful Intent-Breaking Talismans on the iron sand and considered drawing talismans directly onto it for use in battle.
• The Holy Sect announced that disciples from all nine outer prefectures had to fight the Zombie Alliance at Great Black Mountain, with heads and identifying tokens determining their results.
• Qi Yun deduced that the campaign might test the situation without provoking a full war involving the Azure Sect, and he resolved to go.
• Qi Yun packed his things as over a thousand outer prefecture disciples left the mountain gates to fight the Zombie Alliance.

The Zombie Alliance ambushed the Holy Sect disciples at Great Black Mountain with the Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array and a horde of corpses. Qi Yun fought through the attack and led the disciples toward Yuan Hai’s opening in the array after divinations indicated it was safe.

• The Zombie Alliance’s array trapped the arriving Holy Sect disciples, and walking corpses, iron corpses, and bronze corpses attacked them.
• Qi Yun used hundred-refined steel sand to destroy the corpses around him, including an iron corpse, and cleared space in the horde.
• Yuan Hai identified himself as the true cultivator stationed at the Holy Sect’s market town and opened a breach in the array with dark-green light.
• Qi Yun called on disciples versed in divination to assess the breach, and their readings all foretold good fortune.
• Qi Yun led the martial and sword cultivators toward Yuan Hai’s opening while the other disciples provided support, and together they broke through the trap.

Qi Yun used his Iron Sand Method to blast through the enhanced zombie horde and help the Holy Sect disciples survive the failing breakout. He suppressed the Bronze-Armored Corpse long enough for the disciples to retreat, but knew he could not kill it without revealing all his trump cards.

• The Zombie Alliance strengthened the zombies with the Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array, making the breakout stall as the creatures kept attacking even after being dismembered.
• Qi Yun unleashed Iron Sand Method--Wild Arrow Strikes, destroying the zombies in his path and restoring the disciples’ advance.
• The Zombie Alliance cultivators summoned a powerful Bronze-Armored Corpse, which shattered the disciples’ binding techniques and sent them reeling.
• Qi Yun struck the Bronze-Armored Corpse with a blazing iron-sand fist and drove it into the ground.
• Qi Yun ordered the Holy Sect disciples to withdraw while he suppressed the corpse, which he could not kill without using all his trump cards.

After escaping a Zombie Alliance ambush, Qi Yun learned that the Holy Sect market had been badly damaged and that the enemy had brought ten powerful true cultivators and their Bronze-Armored Corpses. The disciples concluded the Azure Sect was preventing either side from deploying true cultivators, and prepared to exploit the balance of forces to settle their grudges.

• The Holy Sect disciples reached their devastated market and met Yuan Hai, the injured cultivator stationed there.
• Qi Yun told Yuan Hai that disciples from all nine outer courts were arriving, but Yuan Hai warned that the Zombie Alliance had ten true cultivators and ten Bronze-Armored Corpses.
• Shen Fan suggested the Holy Sect had sent outer court disciples because the Zombie Alliance had suffered a backlash after deploying its stronger forces.
• Qi Yun proposed that the Azure Sect was behind the backlash, and the disciples reasoned that its cultivators were killing any true cultivators who entered the fight.
• The Holy Sect disciples concluded the Zombie Alliance was also constrained and smiled as they prepared to settle their grudges.

The Holy Sect outer court disciples launched a counterattack against the Zombie Alliance while Qi Yun searched for the grand array’s core. As the Zombie Alliance awakened its hidden forces and summoned three Bronze-Armored Corpses, the marketplace array shattered, and Yuan Hai revealed that Qi Yun had seen through his deception.

• More than four hundred Holy Sect outer court disciples charged out of the marketplace and fought the Zombie Alliance’s corpse horde.
• Wu Cang ordered the [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array] fully activated, waking 123 buried Zombie Alliance cultivators and summoning three Bronze-Armored Corpses.
• Qi Yun used Yuan Hai’s Jade Slip map to locate the grand array’s core in a mountain hollow and prepared to strike it.
• The marketplace’s dark green array suddenly shattered, and Yuan Hai straightened up and admitted that Qi Yun had seen through him.

Qi Yun exposed the false Yuan Hai and destroyed the market array supporting the Zombie Alliance’s [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array], turning the battle at Great Black Mountain in the Holy Sect’s favor. As he fought the disguised enemy and a strange zombie, he learned that the Zombie Alliance had created Law Corpses capable of casting techniques.

• Qi Yun retrieved the corrupted Great Void Jade Tally and explained that Yuan Hai’s act was too openly weak to fool a Holy Sect disciple.
• Qi Yun revealed that the Holy Sect’s disciples had pretended to fall for the Zombie Alliance’s scheme while the remaining five hundred-odd Outer Palace disciples surrounded them.
• Qi Yun destroyed the market array’s disc, cutting off the support for the [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array] and weakening the Zombie Alliance’s zombies.
• Qi Yun and the false Yuan Hai attacked each other, while a blue-faced zombie appeared behind Qi Yun and fought his three white-bone skulls.
• Yuan Hai revealed that the zombie was a Law Corpse, a new variety created by refining vicious ghosts with zombies, and explained that Great Black Mountain was seized to produce them.