Recaps

The Ascendant Will recognized Xiao Yao’s power as an immortal art and struggled to counter her, but Wang Sanjin’s overstrained body began to collapse. Xiao Yao crushed his spatial sorcery and sent him crashing into the Elixir Spirit Space, where Liuli appeared beside him.

• The eldest split soul identified Xiao Yao’s power as an immortal art and warned that she might become a second Zhuang Xuanji.
• Xiao Yao attacked, seized a devouring sphere, and proved Wang Sanjin’s spatial sorcery could not affect her.
• The eldest split soul took control of Wang Sanjin and began using the Ice Mist Immortal Art as his body burst from overexertion.
• Xiao Yao crushed the devouring sphere and punched Wang Sanjin down to the bottom of the Elixir Spirit Space.
• Liuli appeared beside Wang Sanjin after he struck the space’s wall.

Xiao Yao rejected the Upper Cultivator's offer to cooperate and unleashed a powerful avatar, forcing him to sacrifice Wang Sanjin's remaining lifespan for a decisive clash. Their immortal techniques collided and created a spatial vortex that threatened to crush everything in the realm.

• The Treading-Void Split Souls plotted to preserve Wang Sanjin's last breath, burn away his remaining vitality, and escape using Spatial Folding.
• The Upper Cultivator tried to persuade Xiao Yao to stop fighting and cooperate in refining the ancient cultivator's relic.
• Xiao Yao summoned two more Liuli avatars and said that her martial uncles also knew how to refine the supreme treasure, revealing that the Upper Cultivator was no ally of theirs.
• Xiao Yao manifested a strange eight-armed, four-legged avatar as the Upper Cultivator sacrificed Wang Sanjin's remaining lifespan to summon an icy immortal sword.
• Xiao Yao's Supreme Intent True Martial Break clashed with the Upper Cultivator's Cold-Coalescing Edge, Immortal and Mortal Rebirth, crushing the realm's source power and forming a vast spatial vortex.

Three Treading-Void Split Souls realized they had been drawn into the ownerless Creation Origin and saw an opportunity to refine its power. They began absorbing the sea of blood into Wang Sanjin, restoring his battered body.

• The Treading-Void Split Souls investigated the strange space and concluded that it had no connection to the Danyuan Secret Realm.
• The oldest Split Soul realized they had entered the Creation Origin itself, which Xiao Yao had not yet mastered.
• The three Split Souls decided to use the Sea Pavilion Secret Art to refine the Creation Origin and gain power to threaten Xiao Yao.
• The Split Souls began drawing the sea of blood into Wang Sanjin, and his pale, battered body regained its color and flesh.

The origin of creation turned the blood and qi in Wang Sanjin’s body against the three Treading Void soul fragments, trapping two and refining their souls. The old cultivator escaped the body but found himself stranded beneath a river of stars as blood-red light engulfed him.

• The three cultivators realized that the blood and qi was taking control of Wang Sanjin’s body instead of becoming his foundation.
• The old cultivator withdrew his soul fragment, but blood-and-qi chains trapped the other two and began refining their souls.
• The trapped soul fragments cried for help, but the old cultivator refused to return and sacrificed half his soul essence to escape.
• The old cultivator’s remaining soul fragment emerged in a desolate void and saw stars form a river overhead.
• The old cultivator failed to summon the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, and blood-red light engulfed him.

Wang Sanjin died while believing the Blood Sun Venerable God had helped him attain the Dao. Meanwhile, the Ascendant Will continued fighting He Xinxian and failed to break her resolve to keep control of her own Dao.

• After the Blood Sun Venerable God withdrew its power, Wang Sanjin's body dissolved as his Primordial Spirit rose into a vision of the stars.
• Wang Sanjin mistook the Blood Sun Venerable God for a True Immortal, begged for an immortal art, and died believing he had ascended.
• The Ascendant Will within He Xinxian remained locked in battle with the remnant will of Li Huazhong's master, which had the advantage with Li Huazhong behind it.
• The Ascendant Will grew frustrated that He Xinxian resisted its attempts to control her, unaware that Wang Sanjin and the Treading-Void Split Soul within him had perished.
• He Xinxian insisted that her Dao belonged to her alone, and the Ascendant Will berated her talent and claimed she needed its help.

Li Huazhong trapped three Treading-Void Split Souls inside his Dao Furnace, where his master's remnant helped refine them. As the furnace pulled the fragments inward, one cultivator sacrificed another's soul to escape, leaving Li Huazhong unable to easily stop him.

• Li Huazhong summoned his Dao Furnace and confined the three fleeing Treading-Void Split Souls.
• Li Huazhong's master sent his remnant into the furnace, preparing to sacrifice himself to kill the cultivators from the heavens.
• Li Huazhong intensified the furnace flames while the old alchemist's pellet phantom drew the soul fragments toward it.
• One Treading Void cultivator approached another under the pretense of cooperation, then attacked him.
• The old cultivator sacrificed the other soul fragment and used an escape art to pass through the Dao Furnace.
• Li Huazhong summoned profound fire-light to suppress the escaping cultivator, but could not easily stop him.

Shen Yue, Baili Fusang, and Liu Yanqing guarded the Elixir Origin Spaces around the Elixir Spirit Space, preventing the old cultivator’s wandering souls from escaping. Liu Yanqing checked on Dongfang Yinghao and the young prodigies stationed with him, who were gaining experience intercepting the souls.

• Shen Yue crushed two wandering souls as they escaped through a spatial wall, then sent ink-formed spirit birds to devour more souls emerging elsewhere.
• Shen Yue contacted Baili Fusang, who reported that he had killed the wandering souls in his space with his sword.
• Liu Yanqing used her Netherparting Divine Wind Formation to shred more than a dozen wandering souls that emerged into her space.
• Liu Yanqing contacted Dongfang Yinghao, who reassured her that Dongfang Shuci, Han Fenghua, and Fang Hanchuan were handling the mission under his watch.

Bai Di planned how the New Heaven Project would expand its ranks, prioritizing trustworthy candidates who could resist the Ascendant Will’s temptations. The chapter set out three recruitment groups and reserved the decision on inviting Mystic Insight Venerables to Chen Yang, Dark Underworld Venerable, and Qin Changsheng.

• The New Heaven Project favored trustworthy recruits over greater fighting strength because the Ascendant Will could tempt cultivators to betray its secrets.
• The Heaven-Masters focused on promising young prodigies, while Li Huazhong had been invited only after they judged him worthy.
• Bai Di used Yang Lingqing’s notes to plan recruitment from young prodigies in small and mid-sized factions, talented True Intent Cultivators, and Canglan’s Mystic Insight Venerables.
• Chen Yang, Dark Underworld Venerable, and Qin Changsheng alone held authority to invite Mystic Insight Venerables because those cultivators could access the project’s deepest secrets.

Chen Yang’s plan drew the remnant of the Upper Cultivator’s soul into Star Sea Space, while the Yang Clan continued to prosper under its younger generation. The remnant began recovering there and discovered an astonishing concentration of Creation Origin.

• Chen Yang and the Five Heroes of Meng River’s preparations ensured the Upper Cultivator’s remnant was funneled into Elixir Spirit Space and drawn into Star Sea Space.
• Chen Yang reflected on Yang Lingqing’s legacy and trusted Yang Yuanxing, Yang Yuanwen, Yang Yuanliu, and Yang Lingshu to share responsibility for the Yang Clan’s future.
• A newborn Yang Clan child attracted a Spirit Pearl before birth, which became a natal companion object in the form of a long white-jade blade.
• In Star Sea Space, the remnant’s soul began healing under the surrounding power, and he recognized that the place contained more Creation Origin than any treasure he had encountered.

Chen Yang examined the refined memories of an Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment and learned which Void Realm cultivators had placed Ascendant Wills in Wang Sanjin and He Xinxian. He realized the three factions might already be moving against Nangong Jinghe and Zhuang Xuanji in the Void Realm, while New Heaven had no way to send its intelligence upward.

• Liuli used the Spirit Tempering Divine Technique to refine the Upper Cultivator’s remnant soul and presented its core to Chen Yang.
• Chen Yang examined the fragment’s memories and identified the Old Ancestor of Lingxiao Dao Academy, a Confluence Faction elder, and a Demonic Dao cultivator as the cultivators behind the Ascendant Wills.
• Chen Yang discovered that the three Void Realm cultivators had divided their memories and signature techniques among separate soul fragments.
• Blood Sun Venerable God presented three refined Treading-Void Split Souls from Wang Sanjin, whose memories helped Chen Yang confirm the cultivators’ precautions.
• Chen Yang concluded that the Upper Cultivator from Sea Pavilion’s arrival had broken the balance between the realms and that the Void Realm factions might prevent Canglan’s peak cultivators from ascending.

After the Immortal Capture Operation ended, Chen Yang and the others secured its gains and arranged for the captured Upper Cultivator souls to be studied. Suspecting the Sea Pavilion Upper Cultivator had hidden plans involving the future, Chen Yang ordered Xiao Yao to contact the participants and erased the Upper Cultivator aura from them, leaving the story with preparations for an uncertain threat.

• Ling Shuang took charge of recording Xiao Yao and Li Huazhong's merits and planned to deliver the captured Upper Cultivator souls to the Dark Underworld Venerable after the Secret Realm ended.
• Chen Yang gave a remnant soul fragment to Xu Cang, allowing it to detect concealed spell fluctuations within the Sky Curtain more precisely.
• The New Heaven cultivators gained soul power from the fleeing Upper Cultivator ghosts, and the Immortal Capture Operation ended successfully.
• Chen Yang suspected the Sea Pavilion Upper Cultivator had other hidden arrangements that could create future threats for Canglan.
• Chen Yang ordered Xiao Yao to contact every New Heaven cultivator who had joined the operation, then used Yan Ming's divine ability to erase their Upper Cultivator aura, sparing only Xiao Yao and Li Huazhong.

Xuanyuan Rongchuan and Wen Zhiyu praised their son Xuanyuan Jun’s ambition and discussed his destiny after he stirred the ancestral leyline at birth. They learned that pills for both Xuanyuan Jun and Wen Zhiyu had been secured, leaving the family grateful to the Xuanyuan Clan’s ancestors.

• Xuanyuan Jun admired Xiao Yao and promised to work hard enough to match her achievements.
• Xuanyuan Rongchuan told Xuanyuan Jun that the ancestral leyline’s inheritance could help him advance alongside Xiao Yao.
• Xuanyuan Rongchuan announced that the ancestor had secured pills for Xuanyuan Jun and Wen Zhiyu.
• Wen Zhiyu rejoiced that her medicine and Xuanyuan Jun’s Meridian-Opening Spirit Pill had been arranged.
• The narration explained that Xuanyuan Jun’s birth had stirred the ancestral leyline, making him the Xuanyuan Clan’s foremost cultivation priority.

The Central Region factions speculated about the Yang Clan’s internal situation after Heaven-Clearing Academy announced it would accept its first disciple. They focused on Yang Lingshu, an old member of the Ling generation, and wondered whether the new sect announcement signaled a power struggle or a declaration by the clan’s old guard.

• The Yang Clan had remained silent for nearly five years after the lightning tribulation, and its absence from the latest Pill Origin Ceremony had fueled speculation.
• Heaven-Clearing Academy announced that it would establish itself as a sect and accept its first disciple, drawing the attention of Central Region factions.
• Cultivators learned that Yang Lingshu had joined the Myriad Transformation Sect decades earlier and later become its sect master without returning to the Yang Clan.
• The factions noted that Yang Lingshu belonged to the senior Ling generation, alongside figures such as Yang Lingqing and Yang Lingrui, and that he had once been considered a possible future patriarch.
• Central Region cultivators suspected that Yang Lingshu’s return to the ancestral lands and the academy’s recruitment drive were connected to tensions within the Yang Clan after the former patriarch’s death.

Central Region powers interpreted the Yang Clan’s internal divisions and the Lingxiao Dao Academy’s distance as signs of weakness, while the Yang Clan deliberately fostered that impression to conceal the New Heaven Project. The chapter left those powers preparing to send juniors northwest as the Upper Realm cultivators’ preference for chaos shaped the conflict.

• Central Region cultivators concluded that the Yang Clan’s fortunes had declined after its calamity and anticipated further turmoil when its reclusive peak cultivator attempted to ascend.
• Several powers began choosing young cultivators to send northwest for the Heaven-Clearing Academy’s recruitment.
• The Yang Clan continued to let rumors of its weakness spread, maintaining a deliberate illusion to protect the New Heaven Project.
• Bai Di’s strategy called for showing the Upper Realm cultivators the discord and disorder they expected to see among lower-realm cultivators.
• The Lingxiao Dao Academy declined to send cultivators northwest, signaling that it had reached little agreement with the Yang Clan.

Murong Xu, Tiger Chasing's gifted crown prince, reported his studies and cultivation progress to Murong Tianyang and Li Qingwan. With Heaven-Clearing Academy recruiting disciples, his parents had to consider his next opportunity for further training.

• Murong Tianyang ordered Tiger Chasing's clans, families, and sects to recommend outstanding juniors for Heaven-Clearing Academy's disciple selection.
• Murong Xu reported that he had studied three historical records and cultivated two methods to the introductory level.
• Li Qingwan and Murong Tianyang had arranged for Zi He, the Evil Extermination Division's Deputy Commander and their imperial brother-in-law, to guide Murong Xu's cultivation.
• Murong Xu reached the Seventh Level of Qi Gathering before age fifteen and earned the Evil Extermination Division's praise for his combat talent and victories against stronger enemies.

Murong Xu and several talented youths from the Tiger Chasing Realm’s factions prepared to travel to the Yang Family Sacred Land or Heaven-Clearing Academy to cultivate. Jia Huarai departed with Murong Xu, while Xuan Zhou, Zi He, and Feng Lan set out with their chosen youths.

• Murong Xu eagerly accepted a jade pendant from Li Qingwan before Jia Huarai escorted him from the palace toward the Barbarian Land.
• Xuan Zhou selected three promising children from the Immortal Patrol Division’s reserves to take to Heaven-Clearing Academy.
• Zi He traveled with Zi Mo, warned him not to underestimate the Yang Clan, and heard him promise to behave.
• Feng Lan departed east with his thirteen-year-old daughter, whose cultivation had reached the Sixth Level of Qi Gathering.

Young cultivators from the Northwest arrived in the Barbarian Land for Heaven-Clearing Academy’s entrance trial, where the Yang Clan secretly assessed their conduct while they explored the cities. Feng Weiran and He Shuping encountered a shopkeeper inviting them into his jewelry shop.

• The Yang Clan and barbarian cultivators began observing the young candidates as they arrived in the barbarian city-states.
• The candidates’ elders left them to explore on their own, deliberately allowing the Yang Clan to assess them without warning them.
• Feng Weiran stayed close to He Shuping as they wandered through an unfamiliar city.
• A shopkeeper called out to the two Great Cang girls and advertised jewelry unique to the Sacred Land.
• He Shuping showed interest in the shop and suggested that she and Feng Weiran look around.

Dalom revealed that the Yang Clan had arranged eight powerful spirit treasures as a trial for He Shuping and Feng Weiran. He Shuping urged Feng Weiran to demonstrate her talent for breaking restrictions, and Feng Weiran began examining the weakest one.

• Dalom used his bone-supported scepter to reveal eight restricted spirit treasures.
• He Shuping and Feng Weiran recognized that the treasures were far more powerful than ordinary jewelry-shop wares.
• Dalom explained that the Yang Clan’s craftsmen and Sacred Clan experts had forged the treasures, and suggested they could help the women enter the Sacred Land Technique Academy.
• He Shuping asked whether they would be free to leave after breaking the restrictions, and Dalom encouraged them to take as many treasures as they could.
• He Shuping reassured Feng Weiran that her skill at breaking barriers made her one of the best in the Northwest.
• Feng Weiran steadied herself and began examining the weakest restriction, while Dalom watched her with new interest.

Yang Lingrui welcomed Zi He and Jia Huarai, who reflected on how their lives and responsibilities had changed since their youth. Jia Huarai recalled how a conversation with Emperor Murong Tianyang had eased his obsession with advancing his cultivation, as the chapter ended with Tianyang explaining why the Dynasty could not expand without conflict with the Yang Clan.

• Yang Lingrui greeted Zi He and Jia Huarai, and they formally saluted him as the Yang Clan’s Mandate Official.
• Zi He and Jia Huarai remembered their earlier encounters with Yang Lingrui and considered how far each of them had come.
• Zi He reflected on how he had grown from an ambitious young cultivator into a dependable deputy commander who shared the Dynasty’s burdens.
• Jia Huarai recalled reaching the limits of his talent and taking on the responsibilities of Imperial Preceptor after proving his Dao at Heavenly Sword Mountain.
• Jia Huarai remembered that Emperor Murong Tianyang had persuaded him to abandon the idea of withdrawing from public life by reminding him that human strength and circumstances had limits.
• Murong Tianyang recalled that the Yang Clan’s rise made further territorial expansion by the Tiger Chasing Dynasty likely to lead to conflict with the Yang Clan.

Yang Lingrui revealed to Zi He and Jia Huarai that the Yang Clan's long seclusion was part of a larger secret connected to a senior cultivator and the New Heaven Project. After accepting stone tokens and learning the truth, both friends remained committed to the cause.

• Yang Lingrui reunited with Zi He and Jia Huarai, and they discussed the Yang Clan's affairs during its years of seclusion.
• Zi He guessed that the Yang Clan's seclusion had been staged, and Yang Lingrui confirmed it had followed Sister Qing's arrangements and concealed a greater secret.
• Yang Lingrui sealed off the surrounding space and explained that the secret involved a senior cultivator, powerful forces, and all living beings of Azure Waves.
• Yang Lingrui gave Zi He and Jia Huarai stone tokens and asked them to place drops of vital blood on them.
• Zi He and Jia Huarai received the tokens' methods and the New Heaven Project's secrets, then resolved not to retreat.

Central Region powers sent young disciples toward Heaven-Clearing Academy, while a Five Directions Immortal Mansion cultivator warned the children aboard his vessel about the Yang Family Sacred Land. He noticed that the Jiang Clan’s gifted girl, Jiang Pu, was absent.

• Central Region middle-tier powers split between token participation and sending promising juniors to seek ties with the Yang Clan through Heaven-Clearing Academy.
• A white-haired cultivator aboard the Five Directions Immortal Mansion vessel warned the children to behave carefully when they reached the Yang Family Sacred Land.
• The children thanked the cultivator, then dispersed to look around the vessel.
• The cultivator noticed Jiang Pu was missing and recalled the gifted Jiang Clan girl’s emergence more than a year earlier.

Jiang Pu struggled against the Ascendant Will, unaware that it had planted her belief in the Demonbane Immortal Treasure to manipulate her into finding the Creation Origin. Sheng Jiaoyang visited her cave and said he intended to end their engagement.

• Jiang Pu recovered her strength and resolved to find the Immortal Treasure, believing it could free her from the demon possessing her.
• The Ascendant Will’s scheme was revealed: it had invented the treasure’s power to drive Jiang Pu toward the Creation Origin and eventually break her will.
• Sheng Jiaoyang came to Jiang Pu’s cave to discuss the relationship between their households.
• Sheng Jiaoyang told Jiang Pu their marriage was unlikely to happen and said he would formally decline the engagement after entering the Heaven-Clearing Academy.

Sheng Jiaoyang visited Jiang Pu and recognized her determination to rebuild her cultivation, though he believed her damaged foundation limited her future. The chapter revealed that the evil demon Jiang Pu blamed for her failed breakthrough was real, but no one—including an Immortal Mansion Venerable—could detect it, leaving Jiang Pu doubting her own memories.

• Sheng Jiaoyang left Jiang Pu's Immortal Estate after seeing that she was drawing qi into her body and rebuilding her cultivation.
• Sheng Jiaoyang recalled how Jiang Pu had blamed a sinister entity for disrupting her breakthrough and damaging her Dao foundation.
• Immortal Mansion cultivators and clan elders examined Jiang Pu, but found no evidence of an outside force and concluded that she had experienced Qi Deviation.
• Sheng Jiaoyang felt glad that Jiang Pu had recovered her resolve, but believed their different paths and her limited aptitude would end their bond.
• Jiang Pu continued to hear the real evil demon laughing in her mind, while those around her dismissed her claims and she began to doubt what had happened.

Heaven-Clearing Academy recruited disciples with a focus on character and loyalty rather than talent, admitting many overlooked young cultivators from the Central Region. The selected children began their next test: climbing Clear Sky Peak to reach the summit hall.

• The Yang Clan admitted junior disciples from allied Central Region powers while screening out many candidates from factions that had only come to watch.
• The Yang Clan selected several young cultivators with poor aptitude, whose elders had expected them to be merely a pretext and not true academy disciples.
• Murong Xu, Zi Mo, He Shuping, Feng Weiran, Jiang Pu, and Sheng Jiaoyang advanced to the next round of selection.
• The candidates were told to climb Clear Sky Peak by any means and reach the great hall at its summit to qualify for Heaven-Clearing Academy.

Yang Yuanwen and Yang Yuanliu descended before the children gathered for a mountain-climbing selection, and Luo Yunheng explained Yang Yuanwen’s standing as the northwest’s foremost talisman cultivator. Murong Xu identified Yang Yuanliu as a former Tiger Chasing Archives director, leaving Zi Mo and Feng Weiran reassured that she meant them no harm.

• Yang Yuanwen and Yang Yuanliu appeared before the children, who bowed to the two seniors.
• Luo Yunheng told his junior sister that Yang Yuanwen was the northwest’s leading talisman cultivator and a Chuyun Pavilion ally.
• Luo Yunheng’s junior sister excitedly hoped to meet the Dragon Sovereign and Fate Official, and Luo Yunheng reminded her to pass the selection first.
• Zi Mo and Feng Weiran wondered why Yang Yuanliu had been watching them and feared they had done something wrong.
• Murong Xu identified Yang Yuanliu as a former director of Tiger Chasing’s Archives and reassured Zi Mo and Feng Weiran that she bore them no ill will.