Chapter Summaries

While Wu Xingqiu and the others waited for Yuan Zhao to explore the fire pool, Long Yan of Penglai Palace arrived and accused the man of impersonating a cultivator. Long Yan overpowered Wu Xingqiu and demanded to know where the supposed thief had gone.

• Wu Xingqiu and the others waited for Yuan Zhao, who had spent more than five hours exploring the lava pool beneath the converging Fire Veins.
• Wu Xingqiu's Junior Sister recalled finding Yuan Zhao in an underground coal mine and bringing him to help open the Secret Realm.
• Long Yan of Penglai Palace arrived and asked for Yuan Zhao, then claimed the man had swindled the group by impersonating a Penglai Palace cultivator.
• Wu Xingqiu defended the group's verification of Yuan Zhao's identity, but Long Yan insulted him and Xi Yan Immortal Mansion.
• Wu Xingqiu prepared to attack, but Long Yan manifested his Dragon Body and suppressed Wu Xingqiu's fire arts.
• Long Yan demanded to know where the thief who impersonated a Penglai Palace cultivator had gone.

Long Yan confronted Wu Xingqiu over Yang Yuanzhao’s whereabouts, then discovered the fire pool’s Dao intent and began drawing it out himself. Wu Xingqiu realized the rumors about Yuan Zhao’s identity were wrong and suspected a powerful senior’s connections explained his group’s privileged treatment.

• Wu Xingqiu recognized Long Yan as an arrogant but inexperienced Fire Dragon genius whose strength made him a formidable opponent.
• Long Yan demanded to know where Yang Yuanzhao had gone, and Wu Xingqiu told him Yuan had entered the lava fire pool more than five hours earlier.
• Wu Xingqiu explained how they had discovered the fire pool’s treasure and its method of activation.
• Long Yan meditated beside the pool and connected with its true intent of the fire Dao in less than half an hour.
• Wu Xingqiu reasoned that Yuan Zhao and his companions were not from Penglai Palace and suspected their favorable treatment came through a senior’s connections.

Long Yan tried to master the Fire Dao true intent, then entered the fire pool to prove his abilities and investigate Yang Yuanzhao’s success. Forced to retreat as the heat overwhelmed him, he discovered that black objects had blocked his path upward.

• Long Yan failed to resonate with the Fire Dao true intent and dismissed Wu Xingqiu’s warning before drawing the fire spirits into his dragon body.
• Wu Xingqiu and his fellow Xi Yan Immortal Mansion disciples discussed their declining fortunes and resolved to seize the Secret Realm’s opportunity.
• Long Yan plunged into the fire pool, endured the heat with his dragon body, and used a spirit treasure cloak to descend farther.
• Long Yan encountered hard, heat-resistant black objects that slowed his descent and drained his spiritual power.
• Long Yan decided to retreat when the earthfire breath threatened his mind, but found that black objects had blocked the lava above him.

Long Yan became trapped beneath the fire pool, and his spiritual treasure and body were consumed by the earthflame fire breath. Yang Yuanzhao saved him, then asked him to serve as bait while he tried to draw out a slippery, spiritual fire entity.

• Long Yan failed to find a way through the pitch-black barrier and recklessly rammed it as his cloak spiritual treasure burned away.
• As the fire breath overwhelmed him, Long Yan regretted ignoring his clan elders’ warnings, and his dragon body shattered.
• A life-preserving item from the Fire Dragon lineage shielded Long Yan temporarily, and a beam of light carried him to safety.
• Yang Yuanzhao revived Long Yan and explained that he planned to draw out the spiritual earthflame fire breath using suitable bait.
• Yang Yuanzhao introduced himself as a member of the Northwest Yang Clan and asked Long Yan to help lure the entity out.

Yang Yuanzhao persuaded the frightened Long Yan to help lure the fire aura by explaining that Long Yan would be in danger once the protective space vanished. Long Yan agreed to hear the plan, and Yang Yuanzhao offered him a water-aura robe to protect him in the fire pool.

• Long Yan refused Yang Yuanzhao's request to act as bait and took his own healing pill instead.
• Yang Yuanzhao explained that the spatial barrier would disappear when he ascended, leaving Long Yan in danger without his damaged cloak spirit treasure.
• Yang Yuanzhao promised not to abandon Long Yan, and Long Yan gratefully agreed to hear the rest of the plan.
• Yang Yuanzhao presented a Water Dao robe filled with stored water aura so Long Yan could endure the fire pool.

Long Yan used the Water Dao robe to lure the Earthflame fire energy out of the fire pool while Yang Yuanzhao coordinated with the other Yang Clan cultivators. Across the Five Directions Secret Realms, the Immortal Estate cultivators made rapid progress toward unlocking the Five Elements Supreme Treasure, unaware that the Yang Clan juniors were secretly helping them.

• Yang Yuanzhao gave Long Yan the Water Dao robe and explained how he could lure the Earthflame fire energy out of the pool.
• Long Yan put on the robe, entered the fire pool, and began drawing out the fire energy as Yang Yuanzhao prepared to guide it away.
• Yang Yuanzhao received reports that Yang Yuanling, Chen Huai'an, and Lin Qiao were making progress in their respective Secret Realms.
• Lin Qiao and Ming Fang helped mediate the conflict in the Gold Dao Secret Realm, allowing its cultivators to explore the treasure's unlocking mechanisms.
• The Five Directions Immortal Mansion cultivators noticed that their progress seemed unusually easy and attributed it to the Immortal Estate regaining the Favor of the Great Dao.
• The chapter revealed that four junior Yang Clan cultivators were secretly driving the Immortal Estate cultivators' progress across the Secret Realms.

The five groups successfully triggered and refined the wonders in the Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and Metal Dao Secret Realms, causing the Five Elements Great Formation to begin forming. A sky-covering hand appeared above the Secret Realms, and five giant peaks rose as cultivators converged on the emerging treasure.

• Yang Yuanling and the cultivators in the Wood Dao Secret Realm triggered and refined its wonder, followed by Chen Huai'an and the cultivators in the Water Dao Secret Realm.
• Yang Yuanzhao and Long Yan brought the earthflame fire essence to the surface, and Wu Xingqiu's group refined it into the Fire Dao Secret Realm; afterward, Long Yan apologized and became sworn brothers with Wu Xingqiu.
• Lin Qiao and Ming Fang led the effort to trigger and refine the Earth Dao Secret Realm's wonder despite friction among the cultivators.
• Five days later, the Lin Jin Immortal Mansion cultivators and other groups triggered and refined the Metal Dao Secret Realm's wonder.
• After all five wonders returned to their places, a gigantic hand appeared in the sky, and Wu Xingqiu explained that the formation would create five Immortal Mountains that could later merge into the Five Elements Immortal Peak.
• Cultivators from across the Secret Realms rushed toward the five wonders as towering peaks and a five-colored formation emerged.

The cultivators connected the Five Elements Great Formation’s nodes and began challenging the five mountain-suppressing barriers, which placed them in deadly illusions. Chen Yang discovered that failing a challenge cost cultivators an increasingly large amount of lifespan, and realized repeated failures could kill them outright.

• The four Yang Clan members entered the Five Elements Great Formation first, gained spirit seals, and helped locate its scattered nodes before the cultivators completed the task three days later.
• The cultivators entered the five mountain-suppressing objects to challenge their barriers, but many were expelled after experiencing what felt like death in an illusion.
• Chen Yang recognized a familiar power of time inside the illusory space and suspected the Secret Realm contained a time-related treasure.
• Yang Yuanling and Yang Yuanzhao failed their first challenges and each lost one year of lifespan; Chen Yang investigated other failures and found the lifespan penalty doubled with each attempt.
• Chen Yang deduced that repeated failures could exhaust a cultivator’s lifespan and kill them inside the trial.

Chen Yang and the Yang Clan discovered that failed attempts in the illusion trial consumed real lifespan, and Wu Xingqiu confirmed the hidden penalty by noticing signs of aging on a cultivator. The cultivators were warned to stop entering the illusion, while Lin Qiao and Chen Huai'an passed the trial and helped spread the warning.

• Chen Yang told the four Yang Clan members that each failed illusion challenge cost real lifespan, and they decided to warn others indirectly.
• Yang Yuanzhao hinted to Wu Xingqiu that the unusually easy trial seemed suspicious, prompting Wu to reconsider the barrier's apparent lack of difficulty.
• Wu Xingqiu noticed wrinkles on a twenty-six-year-old cultivator and realized that repeated failures had aged the challengers and reduced their lifespans.
• Wu Xingqiu and Yang Yuanling warned cultivators in their Secret Realms, and the gathered challengers confirmed the abnormal signs of aging.
• Lin Qiao and Chen Huai'an passed the illusion trial without losing lifespan, then used the warning from their Immortal Venerable to inform other cultivators.

Cultivators in the Secret Realms organized further attempts to break the Five Elements Barriers despite escalating lifespan penalties, while the Metal and Earth Dao realms succeeded. With only the Fire Dao Barrier remaining, Wu Xingqiu resolved to risk another attempt, believing it might be his only chance to pursue true meaning.

• The Wood, Water, Earth, and Fire Dao cultivators chose candidates for further trials, and Wu Xingqiu volunteered to keep challenging the Fire Dao Barrier.
• The Metal Dao finger lit up after the Meishan sword cultivators and Lin Jin Immortal Mansion's forces overcame their barrier, prompting cultivators in the other realms to pool what they had learned.
• Over the next ten days, the Water and Wood Dao Secret Realms completed their ninth trials, while Earth and Fire each needed one more success.
• Wu Xingqiu failed his fifth attempt after half a month, losing thirty-one years of lifespan, and younger fire cultivators also failed their fifth attempts.
• The Earth Dao finger lit up, leaving only Fire; Wu Xingqiu rejected Yang Yuanzhao and Long Yan's pleas to stop, saying he had to take responsibility and would risk his remaining lifespan for a chance to pursue true meaning.

Wu Xingqiu chose to keep risking his lifespan to pursue a breakthrough, and the cultivators honored his resolve as he returned to the blazing fire. After seven failed attempts, he began to gain an insight, and Yang Yuanzhao sensed that the Immortal Venerable had secretly helped him.

• Yang Yuanzhao, Long Yan, Xuan Youli, and the other cultivators saluted Wu Xingqiu and wished him success on his Dao Path.
• Wu Xingqiu returned to the blazing fire atop the mountain to continue his attempts at breaking through.
• Half a month passed as the cultivators in the other Secret Realms worried that the fifth finger would remain unlit before the realm closed.
• Yang Yuanzhao told Chen Huai'an that Wu Xingqiu had failed seven attempts but reached the final stage in his latest one.
• Wu Xingqiu's fire aura formed a phantom of blazing white flame, and the Xi Yan Immortal Mansion disciples and other fire cultivators helped strengthen his insight.
• Yang Yuanzhao sensed a familiar rhythm in Wu Xingqiu's aura and realized the Immortal Venerable had lent him a hand.

Chen Yang secretly bestowed enlightenment on Wu Xingqiu, enabling him to break through the Fire Dao barrier and complete the Five Elements formation. The Five Elements Immortal Peak emerged, the five Secret Realms connected at its base, and the cultivators began climbing toward the treasure, with access limited by their spiritual seals and trials.

• Chen Yang gave Wu Xingqiu a Spiritual Connection Perfection enlightenment bestowal after deciding to help him and his four children reach the Five Elements Supreme Treasure opportunity.
• After three days of enlightenment, Wu Xingqiu entered the flames again and broke through the Fire Dao barrier two days later, drawing cheers from cultivators across the Secret Realms.
• The five immortal mountains merged into a giant hand, which descended and transformed into the Five Elements Immortal Peak.
• Cultivators gathered at the mountain’s base, where the five formerly separate Secret Realm spaces had connected, and Yang Yuanzhao reunited with Yang Yuanling, Lin Qiao, and Huai'an.
• The cultivators began climbing the peak, but only those with spiritual seals could reach the mountainside, and only the forty-five cultivators who passed the trials could reach the summit.

The four Yang Clan members reached the summit region, where they met Kudhan Temple monks and then a group from Penglai Palace. Yu Shuang revealed a rare living-spring salt that could produce a powerful nourishing meal, and Chen Huai'an prepared to try gathering it without damaging its quality.

• The long-eared golden-light monk thanked Lin Qiao for helping Ming Fang, then exchanged brief greetings with Lin Qiao and Chen Huai'an before leading the Kudhan Temple monks onward.
• Chen Yang suggested that the four Yang Clan members explore the summit region while the monks continued toward the peak.
• Long Yan recognized Yang Yuanzhao, and Yu Shuang introduced herself and greeted the four Yang Clan members.
• Yu Shuang showed them rare refined salt from the hot spring and explained that it could be made into a water-Dao nourishing meal with effects comparable to the Secret Realm's Five Elements Baptism.
• Yu Shuang explained that disturbing the spring's natural currents would ruin the salt, so Chen Huai'an offered to use his dragon body and water-Dao affinity to gather it carefully.

Chen Yang’s sudden desire to take the Five Elements Immortal Peak made him suspect that his greed had an unusual cause. After questioning the divine beings under his command, he learned how the Divine Court used the Investiture of the Gods Platform to uncover and correct flaws in divine ranks.

• Chen Yang considered moving the hot springs and then the entire Five Elements Immortal Peak into the space within his true body, but Yan Ming warned that removing it would damage the Secret Realm and the Five Directions Immortal Mansion.
• Chen Yang’s desire faded after Yan Ming’s warning, and he wondered why such intense greed had overcome him.
• Chen Yang summoned Blood Sun, Liuli, Ku Yun, Yu Xun, and the other divine beings to ask about the history of True Gods falling into mortality.
• Liuli and Blood Sun’s accounts revealed that the Divine Court tested True Gods and Divine Lords every five hundred years on the Investiture of the Gods Platform, sending those with flawed divine ranks to the Divine Cave for correction.
• Blood Sun recalled that he had once spent one hundred and eighty years in the Divine Cave repairing a flaw in his own divine rank, and Chen Yang considered whether this history explained his sudden greed.

After realizing his sudden greed had been provoked, Chen Yang discovered that Wu Chang had used an Ancient God Path relic to influence his thoughts. Chen Yang crushed Wu Chang’s manifested body and warned him that the Divine Lord’s authority would not tolerate such interference.

• Chen Yang suspected that someone had magnified his human desires and sensed Wu Chang’s Divine Dao breakthrough near the Divine Mausoleum.
• Chen Yang agreed to meet Wu Chang and confronted him about relics from the Ancient God Path hidden in the Divine Mausoleum.
• Wu Chang admitted that the Dao Stone of Conferment had stirred Chen Yang’s greed after Wu Chang learned to use it.
• Chen Yang invoked the True God Authority, shattered Wu Chang’s spirit-body phantom, and crushed his manifested body despite Wu Chang’s pleas.
• Chen Yang left Wu Chang alive but made clear that any future disloyalty or provocation could mean his immediate death.

Chen Yang brutally punished Wu Chang for testing his limits, then spared its life after it admitted fault. He and Blood Sun Venerable God discussed the coming struggle between the two Daos and the many Yang Clan members who might die, leaving their fate to be decided in battle.

• Chen Yang drained Wu Chang's accumulated divine power and nearly destroyed its spirit body before preserving its life with the Bright Mirror's power.
• Wu Chang kowtowed, apologized, and promised never to offend Chen Yang again.
• Chen Yang returned to the Divine Palace and told the three deities that Wu Chang was alive but had been punished for its wrongdoing.
• After the other deities left, Blood Sun Venerable God asked whether Chen Yang's intervention would delay the struggle between the two Daos.
• Chen Yang said many Yang Clan members would die in the coming battle because he could not protect them all, and said their own strength would determine the outcome.

Bai Di discovered that Wu Chang’s weakened divine power had disrupted his divine arts, but learned that Wu Chang had survived his breakthrough and would eventually be able to aid the Outrealm Battlefield. As Bai Di resumed meditation, the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord baited another great venerable into boasting, only for Azure Flame to appear.

• Bai Di noticed his Divine Light art had failed and ordered his forces to consolidate their battle lines and suspend outside missions for three months.
• Bai Di discreetly contacted Wu Chang, who said his breakthrough had succeeded but depleted his divine power and that he needed time to recover.
• Wu Chang told Bai Di that interfering in the Outrealm Battlefield with Divine Dao methods would take at least three years, and Bai Di accepted the delay.
• Bai Di returned to meditation beneath the divine light while two Demon Sect venerables discussed his sudden order and mocked Azure Flame.
• The Myriad Corpses Demon Lord tricked the Demon Sect’s number one great venerable into challenging Azure Flame, who then appeared and asked what insight he had to offer.

The Azure Flame Demon Venerable spared Lu Gui, then spoke privately with the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord about his nearing death and the need for someone to collect his corpse. After the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord failed to take the chance to kill him, the Azure Flame Demon Venerable left, and Bai Di summoned the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord to fight in the Outrealm.

• Lu Gui apologized to the Azure Flame Demon Venerable, who dismissed him without punishment.
• The Azure Flame Demon Venerable revealed his frail blue hound form and told the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord that his lifespan was nearly exhausted.
• The Azure Flame Demon Venerable said he needed someone to collect his corpse, but the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord failed to seize the chance to kill him.
• The Azure Flame Demon Venerable departed, leaving the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord regretful but composed.
• Bai Di summoned the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord to battle the righteous path's experts in the Outrealm, and he accepted.

Chen Yang's intervention weakened Wu Chang and pushed the front lines into a wary standoff, while Chen Huai'an and the others explored Five Elements Immortal Peak. There, Xuan Youli and the Yang Clan cultivators defeated a group of Meishan sword cultivators, leaving their leader humiliated.

• Wu Chang's sudden weakening disrupted Demonic Dao cultivators' spirit treasures, and Bai Di ordered a retreat that prevented further casualties.
• Chen Huai'an helped Penglai Palace and the Yang Clan harvest refined spirit salt, leaving some behind for the creatures that depended on it, and the two groups shared the yield.
• Near the summit of Five Elements Immortal Peak, the cultivators sensed a fight and found four Meishan sword cultivators battling Xuan Youli.
• Chen Huai'an, Lin Qiao, Yang Yuanling, and Yang Yuanzhao joined Xuan Youli, shifting the fight in her favor.
• Xuan Youli stopped the Meishan leader's combined sword strike with one Mystic Phoenix attack, scattering his allies and breaking his sword.
• Xuan Youli mocked the wounded Meishan leader for claiming Golden Roll potential.

Xuan Youli drove off four Meishan sword cultivators and rewarded the young Yang Clan cultivators who had rushed to help her. Yu Shuang then approached and explained her lineage’s connection to the Thunderstorm Dao Treasury Ancient Venerable.

• Xuan Youli’s reputation and strength made the four Meishan sword cultivators realize they were outmatched, and she sent them away after they retrieved their broken sword.
• Xuan Youli praised the four young Yang Clan cultivators for coming to her aid and gave each of them origin power suited to their Dao arts.
• Xuan Youli explained that she sought an opportunity for true-fire nirvana and had little use for the Five Elements treasures she had found.
• Yu Shuang greeted Xuan Youli and confirmed that her Yu Ling lineage and Qingyao Sect’s lightning arts lineage descended from the Thunderstorm Dao Treasury Ancient Venerable.
• Yu Shuang said the Thunderstorm Dao Treasury Scripture had long been lost, and its lightning and rain paths had diverged over thousands of years.