Chapter Summaries

Qin Mingzheng defeated Bai Pengzhan in the opening tournament after using his puppets and Black Tortoise Armor to keep the Lion-Ape Beast occupied and overpower its master. He claimed the champion’s reward, a spirit beast egg containing a Golden-Horned Beast embryo.

• Qin Mingzheng sent his puppets and Black Armor Ten Soldier Guards against the Lion-Ape Beast, then transformed the Myriad-Armored Black Tortoise into armor and charged Bai Pengzhan.
• Bai Pengzhan destroyed several of Qin Mingzheng’s puppets with talismans, but Qin Mingzheng’s armor resisted his attacks and let him drive Bai Pengzhan back.
• Qin Mingzheng shattered Bai Pengzhan’s last protective talisman and forced him to surrender, ending the tournament with a costly victory.
• Qin Mingzheng received the champion’s spirit beast egg and recognized it as a Golden-Horned Beast embryo, possibly descended from the last Golden-Horned Beast bloodline in Da Zhou.

The Hundred Lineages Competition’s main event began as elite young disciples dominated their matches. Elsewhere, Nangong Qinghong met Qin Lu, apologized with a gift, and proposed they join forces to find a secret realm left behind by the fallen Daliang State.

• The main event began, and paragons such as Nangong Bahuo, Ji Qing, Zhao Huanjin, and Fawen swept through their matches with powerful arts and treasures.
• Nangong Qinghong met Qin Lu in a desolate place, where Qin Lu confronted him for repeatedly spying on his clan and displayed his Dao Foundation Second Layer strength.
• Nangong Qinghong offered Qin Lu a Qiankun Pouch of valuable goods as an apology, and Qin Lu accepted it before agreeing to hear his purpose.
• Nangong Qinghong explained that Daliang State had possessed a spatial secret realm that likely remained within its borders, and asked Qin Lu to plot with him to find it.

Nangong Qinghong sought Qin Lu’s help to explore a secret-realm remnant in the far north, and Qin Lu questioned his motives before hearing the full account. Qin Lu agreed to consider the venture with Nangong Qinghong and Gao Xiong of the Beigao Clan, while privately weighing his strength and the chance to advance his King Wood Dao Principles.

• Qin Lu confronted Nangong Qinghong about the secret realm and demanded that he state the Nangong Clan’s intentions plainly.
• Nangong Qinghong explained that he had obtained a control core from a shattered remnant of the Daliang imperial family’s secret realm and found another remnant in the Frost Spirit Demon Race’s lands.
• Nangong Qinghong proposed that Qin Lu and Gao Xiong of the Beigao Clan join him, promising an equal division of whatever they found.
• Nangong Qinghong threatened Qin Lu’s clansmen if Qin Lu refused and would not swear to keep the secret.
• Qin Lu believed part of Nangong Qinghong’s story and judged that his Dao Foundation Second Layer cultivation and King Wood Spirit Physique could protect him on the expedition.

Qin Lu agreed to Nangong Qinghong’s proposal and swore a three-year alliance, while Gao Xiong received troubling reports about missing and dead cultivators. At the Hundred Lineages Grand Competition in Boundless City, the top ten contestants emerged, including three Qin Clan talents and several other notable prodigies.

• Qin Lu accepted Nangong Qinghong’s proposal, and the two men inscribed a three-year alliance oath on a black crystal stele.
• Gao Xiong learned that several investigated cultivators had died or gone missing and ordered Little Gao to remain within clan territory while another report was sent to Medicine King Valley.
• Qin Minghan swept through the competition with poison and needle techniques, while Qin Mingdao relied on insect control and cold poison.
• Qin Mingyuan fought his way forward with his Spirit-Observing Dao Eyes and earned the nickname Fierce Wolf.
• Nangong Bahuo, Ji Qing, and Fawen impressed observers with their unusual abilities, while Zhang Yi, Ye Huan, Zhao Huanjin, and Tian Qi filled out the top ten.

Qin Minghan won the Hundred Lineages Grand Competition, and the Northern Province Minor Gathering drew cultivators and visitors to Boundless City. As the gathering wound down, twenty young scions and five Qi Condensation cultivators assembled before a pagoda in the Qin Clan’s ancestral grounds.

• Nangong Bahuo took second place after Qin Minghan defeated him, while Ji Qing claimed third and Qin Minghan finished first overall.
• The Northern Province Minor Gathering began in Boundless City, where Qin Minghan attracted attention from marriage-minded families and persistent female cultivators.
• Two Qi Condensation cultivators demonstrated fire and water arts in the competition’s final match, then called a draw after their Law Artifacts collided.
• As the gathering ended, twenty young scions of various families and five Qi Condensation cultivators stood before a pagoda in the Qin Clan’s ancestral grounds in Baxuan Immortal City.

Qin Mingyuan endured the Heart-Refining Pagoda’s illusions and received ancient cultivation methods and spirit-pupil arts from its pagoda spirit. After the visitors left, Qin Lu prepared to depart and gave Qin Xiao and Qin Hui instructions for the clan’s alliances, enemies, and survival.

• Qin Mingyuan resisted visions of the Qin Clan’s destruction and then a comforting illusion, reaching the pagoda’s third layer of heart refinement.
• Qin Zhuang worried that the pagoda spirit might retain a hidden contingency, while Qin Hui insisted its original spiritual awareness had been erased and it could not escape.
• The pagoda spirit gave Qin Mingyuan the Cauldron Primordial Dao-Seeking Method, the Cloud-Transforming Spirit Breath Scripture, and three arts for his spirit pupils.
• Qin Mingyuan left the pagoda with the methods and their teachings engraved in his mind, and all twenty-five visitors later departed with varying gains.
• Qin Lu told Qin Xiao and Qin Hui he would leave soon, ordered them to honor his three-year pact with Nangong Qinghong, investigate the Beigao Clan, and prepare to eliminate the Gao Clan.
• Qin Lu instructed his sons to flee and change their identities if he failed to return, reminding them that survival was their only hope.

Qin Lu left his sons to safeguard the Qin Clan and traveled north with Nangong Qinghong and Gao Xiong. The three reached the border of the Frost Spirit Demon Domain, where they planned to avoid a powerful Frost Demon tribe.

• Qin Lu warned Qin Xiao and Qin Hui to abandon what they could if the clan faced disaster and to detonate the Myriad Poisons Pool rather than let the Northern Province fall to their enemies.
• A month later, Qin Lu met Nangong Qinghong and Gao Xiong, and the three set out together for the far north.
• As they traveled, Gao Xiong sensed unseen malice but could not determine its source and suspected the danger ahead was making him uneasy.
• The travelers reached the frozen border of the Frost Spirit Demon Domain and learned that powerful Frost Spirit Demons guarded the area.
• Nangong Qinghong advised Qin Lu and Gao Xiong to find a way around the Frost Demon tribe rather than force their way through.

Qin Lu and his companions entered the Frost Spirit Demon Domain underground and found a Frost Demon tribe after the Qing Centipede attacked a hunting party. They sealed off the tribe and began slaughtering its members, leaving the tribe under attack.

• Qin Lu, Gao Xiong, and Nangong Qinghong traveled underground into the Frost Spirit Demon Domain while an ancient Frost Demon sensed their arrival and chose to wait.
• Qin Lu detected a group of Frost Demons hunting a mammoth, and the three went to investigate.
• The Qing Centipede killed Frost Wolves and Frost Demons with its cold poison, then devoured the fallen beasts as survivors fled.
• The fleeing Frost Demons led Qin Lu and his companions back to their tribe, where the chieftain knelt and offered to serve them.
• Nangong Qinghong sealed the area with his treasured fan, while Qin Lu and Gao Xiong attacked and killed the Frost Demons.

Qin Lu destroyed a Frost Demon tribe, collected its beasts, resources, corpses, and souls, then followed Nangong Qinghong toward the secret realm. After nearly half a year of cautious travel, the group reached the Land of Frost and Silence, a vast glacier that marked the end of their journey.

• The Frost Demon chieftain attacked, but Gao Xiong killed him, and Qin Lu seized his soul to search his memories for useful information.
• Qin Lu gathered the Frost Wolves and their cubs, then plundered the tribe, killing its remaining Frost Demons and collecting their bodies and souls.
• Nangong Qinghong found the secret realm’s location, and the three cultivators set out together from the ruined tribe.
• The group traveled north cautiously for nearly half a year, avoiding larger tribes and dangerous beasts.
• The three reached the glacier called the Land of Frost and Silence, which Nangong Qinghong had previously feared to cross alone.

Nangong Qinghong, Gao Xiong, and Qin Lu opened the Boundless Mystic Realm after crossing a glacier that suppressed their Dao Grace. The realm separated Qin Lu from the others, and after he harvested spirit wood, a three-headed bird attacked him.

• Nangong Qinghong used a damaged jade ring to lead Gao Xiong and Qin Lu through the glacier, where Ice and Snow Dao Grace suppressed their powers and made Qin Lu worry about Nangong Qinghong’s intentions.
• The three found the ox-horn-shaped iceberg, inserted the jade ring into its slot, and opened the Boundless Mystic Realm.
• Nangong Qinghong proposed splitting their gains equally, and Qin Lu accepted before the three entered the realm and vanished.
• Qin Lu found himself alone in a vast forest, where he harvested several Qiankun Pouches of Second-Tier spirit wood.
• A three-headed monstrous bird swooped down on Qin Lu, attacking with frost, flames, and lightning.

Qin Lu escaped a three-headed monster bird by splitting it with a sword strike and hiding in the forest. At the core of the Boundless Mystic Realm, Gao Xiong discovered that Nangong Qinghong’s body was controlled by a Frost Spirit Demon, but Nangong crushed him before he could report the threat.

• Qin Lu used the Tai'e Sword and King Wood Dao Principles to flee the three-headed monster bird, which damaged his bonded Law Treasure while pursuing him.
• Qin Lu split the monster bird into three bird demons with his Extreme Dao sword strike, then used Flower Princess to hide his presence in the forest.
• The three bird demons searched for Qin Lu, eventually left, and returned later before finally abandoning the area.
• Gao Xiong, battered and out of strength, accused Nangong Qinghong of betraying humanity, and Nangong revealed a pale-blue vertical eye that exposed his Frost Spirit Demon soul.
• Gao Xiong realized the Demon Race might be plotting a major assault and tried to survive to warn Da Zhou, but Nangong crushed him with a gigantic palm.

The Frost Demon found Qin Lu and killed him in a crushing battle, intending to refine him as one of three great medicines to aid his advance to Core Formation. The Frost Demon left Qing Centipede frozen but alive, and the chapter ended with Qin Lu's fate apparently sealed as the demon celebrated his prize.

• Nangong Qinghong revealed his Frost Demon nature and planned to use the captured humans to earn a higher position in his clan.
• The Frost Demon tracked Qin Lu to his hiding place, exposed him, and rejected his offer to surrender his possessions in exchange for his life.
• Qin Lu fought back with the Tai'e Sword, King Wood Dao Principles, poison forces, and plants summoned through his King Wood Spirit Physique.
• The Frost Demon overwhelmed Qin Lu's techniques, pierced his chest, and destroyed his heart.
• Qing Centipede emerged to attack the Frost Demon but was frozen by the Extreme Cold Dao Principle.
• The Frost Demon identified Qin Lu as an Innate Spirit Physique and said refining all three great medicines would raise his chances of advancing by twenty percent.

After the Frost Demon took Qin Lu’s body, Qin Lu survived as a soul hidden with Flower Princess and Qing Centipede, then possessed a green snake and set out to reclaim his remains. As he traveled toward the center of the Boundless Mystic Realm, he grew convinced that he had been caught in a scheme and that returning alone could endanger the Qin Clan.

• The Frost Demon preserved Qin Lu’s body in an ice coffin, planning to refine it with two other great medicines.
• Qing Centipede broke free from the melted iceberg, carried Flower Princess and Qin Lu’s soul underground, and helped conceal them in a protected nest.
• Qin Lu revealed that he had escaped death by preserving his main soul and a Heart of a Wood Demon, then restored his Divine Sense by consuming stored souls and refining the Nether Soul Dao Principle.
• Qin Lu planted a divided-soul seed in Flower Princess as a safeguard, possessed a green snake, and headed toward the center of the Boundless Mystic Realm to find his body.
• Qin Lu questioned whether Nangong Qinghong was genuine and suspected that the mystic realm and his apparent death were part of a scheme that could place the Qin Clan in danger.

Qin Lu discovered that the Frost Demon second elder was using wood Dao cultivators to prepare for a lightning tribulation and planned to stop him from condensing a Demon Core. The second elder began his Four-Nine Lightning Tribulation, enduring its early rounds by refining Gao Xiong and revealing his true form as the storm intensified.

• Qin Lu controlled a green snake into the secret realm and found his body in an ice coffin, while Gao Xiong, Master Chunyang, and wood Dao cultivators were held at the altar.
• Qin Lu realized the Frost Demon second elder intended to refine the cultivators’ flesh, souls, and Dao Rhyme into a pill to support his Demon Core.
• The Frost Demon second elder activated the altar, refined the twelve cultivators into a green pill, swallowed it, and summoned a lightning tribulation.
• The second elder endured the first lightning round, then refined Gao Xiong to restore his strength after the second round charred his body.
• The second elder revealed his giant ice-and-snow true form as the third lightning round descended in the shapes of thunder beasts.

The Frost Demon Second Elder endured the Four-Nine Lightning Tribulation while trying to seize Qin Lu’s body, but Qin Lu’s soul returned and restored him. As the final two-colored Gui Wood Divine Lightning formed, the Second Elder’s plans collapsed and he faced the last strike in a weakened state.

• The Frost Demon Second Elder used his life-bound Frost Spirit Treasure Pearl and Extreme Cold Dao Principle to resist the fourth round of heavenly lightning, but Purple Firmament Divine Lightning injured him and cracked his treasure.
• After the sixth bolt, the Second Elder tried to seize Qin Lu’s body, but a soul-separating technique disrupted him; he forced his soul back into his body and endured the seventh and eighth bolts, which shattered his treasure.
• Qin Lu’s soul returned to his body, his wood heart began beating, his chest healed, and he opened his eyes with the Nether Soul Dao Principle forming a gray Dao robe.
• The Second Elder raged at Qin Lu’s survival as the ninth bolt formed into blue-green and black Gui Wood Divine Lightning, leaving him to face the tribulation’s final strike.

Qin Lu killed the Frost Demon Second Elder and escaped the secret realm with its treasures. He then found Nangong Qinghong, attacked him with the Nether Soul Dao Principle, and pursued him as he fled north.

• Qin Lu taunted the dying Frost Demon Second Elder, who perished under the Gui Wood Divine Lightning and left his Dao Principle fused with the secret realm.
• Qin Lu collected the Second Elder’s golden bones and icy-blue bracelet as the Second Elder’s contracted three-headed bird also died, leaving behind a valley of intertwined Dao Principles.
• Qin Lu used the jade ring from the bracelet to leave the secret realm and found Nangong Qinghong cultivating on a glacier.
• Nangong Qinghong mistook Qin Lu for the Second Elder possessing an innate spirit body and showered him with congratulations.
• Qin Lu struck Nangong Qinghong’s sea of Divine Sense with the Nether Soul Dao Principle, and Nangong Qinghong fled north as Qin Lu chased him.

Qin Lu defeated Nangong Qinghong and extracted his soul, discovering that he was a Frost Demon called Sada who had taken over Nangong’s body through Soul Planting. Sada’s memories also revealed that Demon-Quelling True Person was the Frost Demons’ first elder in disguise.

• Nangong Qinghong tried to flee, but Qin Lu’s Soul Technique broke his resolve and a soul hammer wounded him.
• Nangong Qinghong asked Qin Lu about the poison and his changed Dao Principle, but Qin Lu subdued him and forcibly extracted his soul.
• Qin Lu searched the soul and learned that Sada, a Frost Demon, had planted a Soul Seed in Nangong Qinghong and erased the original Nangong’s will.
• Qin Lu discovered that Sada had deceived Master Chunyang and targeted Gao Xiong and the Qin Clan as part of his scheme.
• Qin Lu learned from Sada’s memories that Demon-Quelling True Person was the Frost Demons’ first elder in disguise.

Qin Lu weighed the danger of exposing the Frost Demons’ infiltration and chose to protect the Beichuan Qin Family by staying hidden and preparing an escape route. Two years later, he returned from the glacier with a new Soul Wood Dao principle, a damaged Tai’e Sword, and a transformed Mystic Soul Dao Body.

• Qin Lu concluded that the Demon-Quelling True Person was a Frost Demons’ infiltrator and that the jade ring gave him control of the Boundless Mystic Realm.
• Qin Lu decided not to expose the infiltration or attack the Nangong Clan and Gao Clan, fearing retaliation against the Qin Clan, and planned to wait or flee south if necessary.
• Two years later, Qin Lu evaded the Frost Demons’ third elder while leaving the glacier as the Ice and Snow Demon Race searched for him.
• Qin Lu’s damaged Tai’e Sword scattered his King Wood Dao Principles, so he developed the Soul Wood Dao Principles and created the Qin Clan’s Sovereign Wood Dao Transformation Scripture.
• Qin Lu’s King Wood Spirit Physique transformed into the Mystic Soul Dao Body.

Five years after Qin Lu left, Qin Xiao worked to strengthen the Qin Clan while cultivating and governing its lands. The clan’s growing cities, schools, and forces had begun to realize Qin Lu’s vision, and Qin Xiao continued to pray for his father’s blessings.

• Qin Xiao advanced from Qi Condensation Second Layer to Fourth Layer through years of diligent cultivation while managing the Qin Clan and watching its rivals.
• Qin Wen remained unable to reach Qi Condensation despite resources and devoted himself to helping Qin Xiao govern, while his son Mingyi reached only True Martial Eighth Realm.
• Qin Minghan became the first member of the Qin Clan’s third generation to reach Qi Condensation and advanced to Second Layer while stationed in Boundless City.
• The Qin Clan established Boundless City as its main trading hub and developed Baxuan Immortal City into a settlement populated by warriors under its rule.
• The Qin Clan’s Daoist Learning Academy identified more than a dozen children with spiritual radiance, preparing them for military service, independent ventures, or service within the clan.

The Qin Clan prospered under its orderly system as its members and allies advanced in cultivation and influence. Meanwhile, the Nangong Clan’s marriage alliance with the Qin Clan concealed their uncertainty over their patriarch’s death and the possible fate of Qin Lu and Gao Xiong.

• The Qin Clan’s Pill Pavilion, founded by Qin Hui, expanded its alchemy business, while his children Qin Mingdao and Qin Mingxi pursued cultivation and family ties.
• Qin Mingxi married Li Shan, who reached the perfection of the True Martial Realm and became known as the Layman Who Lives Off a Woman.
• Qin Hui, Qin Wu, and Qin Zhuang earned the title of the Qin Clan’s Three Giants through their leadership and cultivation.
• Qin Mingzheng became dao companions with a woman from the Nangong Clan’s direct line, strengthening ties between the two clans.
• The Nangong Clan and Qin Clan maintained their alliance while concealing their fears about their patriarchs’ fates and waiting for a chance to learn more.