Chapter Summaries

Qi Yun practiced the versatile Wood Phase Command Method while traveling with Wuji Sacred Sect inner court cultivators to infiltrate the area around Ghost-Crying Market. After the team split up to gather intelligence, Qi Yun concealed himself and headed toward the market.

• Qi Yun used the Wood Phase Command Method to create a Void-Trapping Awl and considered using the technique as a disguise and escape option.
• Chu Liang introduced himself to Qi Yun and proposed that they look out for one another; Qi Yun agreed while remaining wary of his motives.
• The team’s leader, Yuan Zong, ordered the cultivators to investigate Ghost-Crying Market and return to the ravine at midnight ten days later.
• Yuan Zong and the other cultivators departed using their concealment abilities, and Chu Liang sank into the earth.
• Qi Yun transformed into clear, intangible Qi and drifted toward Ghost-Crying Market.

Qi Yun disguised himself as a sinister cultivator and entered Ghost-Crying Market to locate the Yellow Springs Netherworld's Xun position. His calculations led him to Ten Thousand Beauties Pavilion, where its alluring attendants ushered him inside to begin his mission.

• Qi Yun reached Ghost-Crying Market and reviewed his assignment to identify the market's Xun-position earth-vein coordinates with a mission jade talisman.
• Qi Yun used a human-skin mask, a ghost-flame skull, and his Sha Qi to disguise himself as an ominous cultivator before entering the market.
• Qi Yun used Blood-Guided Profound Mysteries to calculate the direction of the Xun position amid the market's streets.
• Qi Yun discovered that the Xun position was at Ten Thousand Beauties Pavilion and resolved to enter despite his misgivings.
• The pavilion's attendants surrounded Qi Yun with alluring greetings and led him inside.

Qi Yun infiltrated the Yellow Springs Netherworld’s restricted earth-vein node beneath the Ten Thousand Beauties Pavilion by using Immortal-Bewitching Incense to trigger a riot. He slipped past the distracted guards and entered the passage beyond the gate.

• Qi Yun discovered that the Pavilion’s Desire-Enticing Evil Souls secretly drained visitors’ primal yang and located the guarded gate at the Xun-position node.
• Unable to pass the guards and bone-beast alarm directly, Qi Yun used Immortal-Bewitching Incense to provoke the evil souls.
• The drug drove dozens of evil souls into a frenzy, and their attacks sparked panic, looting, and a riot throughout the Pavilion.
• The chaos overwhelmed the two Yellow Springs Netherworld guards as Qi Yun approached the gate in concealed form.
• Qi Yun evaded the bone beast head’s detection and slipped through a narrow gap beneath the gate into the passage beyond.

Qi Yun found the Xun-position earth vein node in a chamber protected by a deadly formation and negotiated with a mysterious prisoner to enter safely. After recording the coordinates, he pretended to accept the prisoner’s offer of alliance, then attacked him to kill him and claim his resources.

• Qi Yun reached a chamber where a shackled man warned him that a [Profound Metal Seven Orifices Disk] would kill anyone who entered recklessly.
• The prisoner offered to help Qi Yun enter if he removed three needles, but Qi Yun feigned leaving and concealed himself to expose the man’s bluff.
• The prisoner revealed that striking three stone bricks at a precise frequency would safely disrupt the formation, and Qi Yun used the method to enter.
• Qi Yun activated his mission jade talisman at the earth vein node to record its coordinates, while the prisoner proposed an alliance against the Yellow Springs Netherworld.
• Qi Yun pretended to agree, then attacked the prisoner’s brow with Sword Qi and Southern Brightness Devil Fire, intending to destroy him.

Qi Yun negotiated with a mysterious prisoner who promised information about a Foundation Establishment item in exchange for having his golden-needle restraints removed. After Qi Yun freed him, the man attacked, but Qi Yun escaped with a false body and used the unleashed prisoner as a diversion.

• Qi Yun's attacks failed to harm the prisoner, whose body resisted both physical and magical assaults.
• The prisoner offered the location of a wild Foundation Establishment item, and Qi Yun arranged to remove the restraints gradually in exchange for sworn information.
• Qi Yun removed the last golden needle at the Tianling acupoint, freeing the prisoner's full power and shattering his remaining restraints.
• The freed man tried to devour Qi Yun, but Qi Yun's false body vanished, leaving the man to flee through the passage.
• Qi Yun emerged from hiding and revealed that he had let the prisoner go to draw fire while he escaped.

Qi Yun escaped Ghost-Crying Market while Situ Huaji rampaged through its garrison and fought Wu Yushan, damaging the Five Yin Bag and driving Wu Yushan to flee. Amid the devastation, Wuji Sacred Sect’s true cultivators finished their reconnaissance and gathered to prepare for their next move.

• Qi Yun returned to Ghost-Crying Market, saw Situ Huaji slaughtering its residents and garrison, and slipped away while the fighting drew everyone's attention.
• Wu Yushan summoned the Five Yin Bag, which sucked nearby cultivators into its mouth and attacked Situ Huaji with corrosive Sha Qi tentacles.
• Situ Huaji punched through the Five Yin Bag, injuring Wu Yushan and forcing him to flee, then pursued him despite his badly corroded arm.
• Wuji Sacred Sect’s inner-palace true cultivators used the chaos to complete their reconnaissance and regroup in a secluded mountain ravine.
• Yuan Zong thanked the gathered cultivators and declared that it was time to claim the fruits of their mission.

Yuan Zong sent the coordinates of Ghost-Crying Market to the Wuji Sacred Sect’s spell cultivators, who struck the market with Lesser Five Elements Annihilation Divine Light and broke its defenses. The Holy Sect’s true cultivators stormed the market, and Qi Yun fought his way into its depths while using Essence Devouring to replenish and strengthen himself.

• Yuan Zong used his Essence Blood and Law Seal to send the gathered coordinates to the Holy Sect’s spell cultivators.
• The white-haired old woman led the spell cultivators in firing Lesser Five Elements Annihilation Divine Light, which tore a breach in Ghost-Crying Market’s defenses despite the Ten Thousand Ghosts Netherworld Banner.
• Yuan Zong led the Holy Sect’s true cultivators into the damaged market, where the weakened Yellow Springs Netherworld survivors could barely resist.
• Qi Yun advanced under the protection of sunken abyss iron sand and killed a Yellow Springs Netherworld deacon with Dragon-Binding Gāthā.
• Qi Yun used Void-Trapping Awl to kill fleeing disciples as his skull collected their vital essence through Essence Devouring.
• Qi Yun reached the depths of Ghost-Crying Market.

Qi Yun broke into the Ten Rakshasas Temple, defeated two Five Poisons Cult disciples who tried to ambush him, and discovered a concealed trove of treasures inside a statue. He collected the hoard but paused over an inconspicuous object among the spoils.

• Qi Yun shattered the temple's weakened barrier, sent out Thousand Cranes Talismans to watch the market, and entered the temple.
• Qi Yun burned through the temple's remaining traps and blocked two poisoned needles from Five Poisons Cult cultivators hiding in the side hall.
• Qi Yun resisted the cultivators' poison and attacks with Sunken Abyss Iron Sand and Southern Brightness Devil Fire, then killed them and consumed their blood essence and cultivation with the white-bone skull.
• Qi Yun sensed a familiar tremor in the front hall and smashed the third Rakshasa statue on his left, revealing a hidden treasure trove.
• Qi Yun swept the treasures into his storage bracelet, then paused when he noticed an inconspicuous object among them.

Qi Yun refined an iron token that transformed [Profound Communion and Life Seizure] into a technique that summoned the cultivation-aiding [Stealing and Devouring Gu]. When the Yellow Springs Netherworld surrounded Ghost-Crying Market, Qi Yun fought through its reinforcements and trapped a Seven Kills Sect assassin in an iron-sand cage, crushing him.

• Qi Yun refined the iron token and updated [Profound Communion and Life Seizure], summoning the [Stealing and Devouring Gu] to gather and return ambient Qi as cultivation.
• Qi Yun left the Ten Rakshasas Temple as reinforcements from the northeast and southwest appeared and deadly white fog encircled Ghost-Crying Market.
• Yuan Zong ordered the Holy Sect cultivators to break out separately, and Qi Yun fought through a group of Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators to escape southeast.
• A Seven Kills Sect assassin ambushed Qi Yun, but Qi Yun recognized his fighting style and countered his attacks.
• Qi Yun enclosed himself and the assassin in an iron-sand cage, escaped through a tiny opening, then crushed the assassin with [Millstone Hell].

After escaping the Yellow Springs Netherworld’s counter-encirclement, Qi Yun rested in a mortal county town and inventoried his spoils from Ghost-Crying Market. He discovered an Azure River Scale that could help him explore the Yin Nether Abyss, assessed his progress toward the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, and began planning raids on smaller strongholds when Yuan Zong sent another message.

• Qi Yun escaped the Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators, took an antique dark-gold ring from the slain assassin, and later received Yuan Zong’s warning to avoid the enemy’s reinforcements.
• Qi Yun activated an Essence-Averting Formation Plate in a county-town inn and sorted through the talismans, medicines, and materials he had collected.
• Qi Yun recognized a scale among his spoils as an Azure River Scale, which could protect him from the extreme cold of the Yin Nether Abyss and aid his search for a Foundation Establishment object.
• Qi Yun found that his True Essence had reached about eighty percent of his Purple Mansion and estimated that one or two more large battles could bring him to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.
• Qi Yun decided to seek intelligence on smaller Yellow Springs Netherworld strongholds for lower-risk raids, but Yuan Zong’s message arrived before he could plan further.

Qi Yun interpreted the Holy Sect’s protest as cover for a larger scheme and set out to intensify the conflict. He discovered and destroyed a Yellow Springs Netherworld soul-refining stronghold with a massive iron-sand sphere packed with eighty-one White Bone Corpse Explosion cores.

• Qi Yun read Yuan Zong’s message about the six-faction alliance and concluded the Holy Sect’s public condemnation was laying the groundwork for a broader plan.
• Qi Yun sent dozens of Thousand Cranes Talismans to scout the surrounding mountains and located a Yellow Springs Netherworld stronghold hidden in a miasma-filled valley.
• Qi Yun formed a huge sphere of Sunken Abyss Iron Sand and embedded eighty-one White Bone Corpse Explosion skulls inside it.
• Qi Yun dropped the sphere onto the stronghold and detonated the skulls, obliterating the Yin soul barrier and engulfing the valley in a devastating blast and Corpse Poison Yin Fire.
• Qi Yun watched the destruction as the Stealing and Devouring Gu absorbed the death Qi and Sha Qi, and he concluded that he had muddied the waters enough.

Qi Yun absorbed the essence and chaotic energies left in the ruined Yellow Springs Netherworld stronghold, breaking through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. He studied a costly atlas of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha sites and focused on locations near him as he prepared to advance further.

• Qi Yun surveyed the destroyed stronghold and judged that his powerful attack had consumed most of his True Qi and was too slow for moving targets.
• Qi Yun summoned his eighty-one bone skulls and the Stealing and Devouring Gu to drain the remains and lingering energies throughout the ruins.
• Qi Yun used the influx of power to fill his Purple Mansion with True Essence and break through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.
• Qi Yun retrieved the Secret Detailed Explanation of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Sites in the Northwest, which he had purchased with three years of savings and a loan of twenty thousand Sacred Yuan.
• Qi Yun examined the atlas through his Divine Sense and focused on several marked sites near his current location.

Qi Yun discovered that Wu Yushan had survived Situ Huaji’s attack and was hiding in a mountain cave after massacring a village to restore his strength. Rather than risk a direct fight, Qi Yun spread rumors to draw greedy cultivators to Wu Yushan, then watched from afar as they began attacking the cave.

• Qi Yun followed his guide toward Black Wind Ravine but found a village full of drained corpses and recognized Wu Yushan’s lingering presence.
• Wu Yushan recalled how Situ Huaji’s punch had wrecked his Purple Mansion and forced him to feed on the villagers’ blood and vital essence.
• Qi Yun located Wu Yushan, considered attacking him for his cultivation and treasures, then decided to make others test his strength first.
• Qi Yun planted traces and rumors of a wounded Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivator across the surrounding area, attracting rival forces and Rogue Cultivators.
• Cultivators gathered around Wu Yushan’s cave, and one of them struck its illusion with a fire talisman as Qi Yun watched from a distance through Thousand Cranes.

Wu Yushan was driven to unleash a powerful secret technique against the cultivators besieging him, killing every living creature within ten li. Qi Yun witnessed the display through Thousand Cranes and wondered whether Wu Yushan had used the power of a Foundation Establishment True Person.

• Wu Yushan killed a charging Rogue Cultivator with one strike, but the besiegers saw signs of his weakness and renewed their attacks.
• A Soul-Capturing Bell struck Wu Yushan’s damaged soul, awakening Situ Huaji’s lingering power before Wu Yushan suppressed it at further cost to his health.
• Qi Yun watched through Thousand Cranes and realized Situ Huaji’s power remained inside Wu Yushan and reacted to attacks on his soul.
• As the besiegers pressed their assault, Wu Yushan stopped suppressing his injuries and invoked an ancient technique that released a presence far beyond Qi Refining.
• Wu Yushan’s Dao intent swept across ten li and destroyed the souls of the besiegers and every other living creature in its reach.
• The power left Wu Yushan near collapse, and Qi Yun wondered whether it had been the power of a Foundation Establishment True Person.

After Wu Yushan’s attempt to wield Foundation Establishment-level power nearly destroyed his unfinished Dao Foundation, Qi Yun secretly followed him to an abandoned city. Qi Yun trapped the wounded cultivator inside a ruined temple and began preparing an ambush.

• Wu Yushan discovered that invoking his unfinished Dao Foundation had left it covered in cracks and his cultivation weakened, so he fled toward a secluded cave abode.
• Qi Yun tracked Wu Yushan from a distance and realized he was gravely wounded and near the end of his strength.
• Wu Yushan entered an abandoned city and took refuge in a small temple in its southwestern corner.
• Qi Yun used Thousand Cranes Talismans to map the city and locate Wu Yushan inside the temple.
• Qi Yun silently surrounded the temple with trapping, misdirection, lightning, and fire formations, then began forming Method Formulas to launch his ambush.

Qi Yun ambushed Wu Yushan in a ruined temple and fought him with formations and successive techniques until Wu Yushan tried to bargain, then launched a hidden attack. Qi Yun countered with the soul-targeting Void Weeping Roar, causing Wu Yushan’s already damaged Dao Foundation to shatter.

• Qi Yun’s Dragon-Binding Cangues flattened the temple, and his formations trapped Wu Yushan in the ruins.
• Qi Yun battered Wu Yushan with Void-Trapping Awls, iron sand, devil fire, and exploding skulls as Wu Yushan answered with Netherworld techniques and burned his divine soul.
• As his Dao Foundation neared collapse, Wu Yushan called for a stop and offered his treasures in exchange for his life.
• Qi Yun pretended to accept the offer while Wu Yushan secretly prepared a Soul-Losing and Spirit-Scattering Nail.
• Wu Yushan attacked at close range, but Qi Yun unleashed Void Weeping Roar, which struck Wu Yushan’s soul and triggered the shattering of his Dao Foundation.

Qi Yun stopped Wu Yushan from detonating his shattered Dao Foundation by refining it, then killed him and gained a major upgrade to his white bone Law Technique. Injured but enriched by the victory, Qi Yun fled the ruined city to find a safe place to recover.

• Wu Yushan gave up controlling his crumbling Dao Foundation and began detonating it to take Qi Yun down with him.
• Qi Yun nailed Wu Yushan to a ruined wall with sunken abyss iron sand and used the Law Technique Panel to suppress and refine his Dao Foundation.
• Wu Yushan mistook Qi Yun for a reincarnated True Person, abandoned resistance, and died as Qi Yun absorbed his Dao intent.
• Qi Yun used his eighty-one white bone skulls to devour Wu Yushan and received the upgraded Nether Spring White Bone Method in place of Skull Incantation.
• Qi Yun stored Wu Yushan's corpse, assessed his injuries, and fled toward a secluded mountain ravine to recover.

After recovering from the Yin Qi Wu Yushan left in his body, Qi Yun examined the dead cultivator’s Storage Ring and discovered valuable records about cultivation and a Foundation Establishment item. He sealed the ring against possible tracking and set off toward the Earthly Sha node.

• Qi Yun spent half a month expelling Wu Yushan’s Evil Qi and healing his injuries, then reflected on the gulf between their cultivation levels.
• Qi Yun found Wu Yushan’s Storage Ring, burned away its restriction with the Southern Brightness Devil Fire, and discovered it could block divinations and deductions.
• Qi Yun searched the ring and found Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivation inheritances, Ghost-Crying Market records, and detailed information about the wild Foundation Establishment item.
• Qi Yun found little ready wealth in the ring but valued Wu Yushan’s cultivation notes and Foundation Establishment preparations as guidance for his own Dao Path.
• Qi Yun transferred the useful contents to his storage bracelet, wrapped the Storage Ring in sealing talismans, and headed toward the marked Earthly Sha node.

Qi Yun opened the Earthly Door Aperture by absorbing Earthly Protection Sha Qi beneath Black Wind Ravine, then sensed someone divining his location and fled toward Wuji Sacred Sect territory. A Seven Kills Sect ambush attacked him at a tea stall, and he realized they had targeted him because of his ring.

• Qi Yun located Earthly Protection Sha Qi beneath the pool at Black Wind Ravine and spent over a month cultivating until he opened and stabilized the Earthly Door Aperture.
• After emerging from cultivation, Qi Yun sensed someone divining his location and used a silver ring to break the lock before fleeing toward Wuji Sacred Sect territory.
• Qi Yun disguised himself as a traveler and stopped at a tea stall, where a youngster attacked him with poison powder.
• Qi Yun's skeletal skull destroyed the poison, and disguised Seven Kills Sect attackers launched a coordinated ambush that his Sunken Abyss Iron Sand shielded against.
• Qi Yun divined that the Seven Kills Sect was acting independently, then realized the attackers had come for his ring.

Qi Yun defeated a Seven Kills Sect ambush and captured two surviving assassins. He prepared to question them about the gold ring and whether more enemies were coming.

• Qi Yun used sunken abyss iron sand and eighty-one white bone skulls to slaughter the Dead Puppets surrounding the tea pavilion.
• Seven Kills Sect elites unleashed Light Devouring Kill, trapping Qi Yun in darkness and attacking him with disorder-infused saber lights.
• Qi Yun detonated all eighty-one skulls, shattering the darkness and injuring the hidden assassins.
• The assassins tried to escape using phantom-body concealment, but Qi Yun’s Void Weeping Roar exposed and stunned them.
• Qi Yun transformed into Southern Ming Sword Devil and killed several assassins while crippling two others for questioning.
• Qi Yun approached the two survivors to demand the Seven Kills Sect’s plans and learn the gold ring’s value.