Chapter Summaries

Xuanyuan Jun reconsidered Bai Di as a possible key player in the struggle between himself and the Yang Clan, then found he lacked the information to deduce Bai Di’s intentions. He concluded that he needed to accelerate the Erosion Plan and seek support within the Xuanyuan Ancient Clan.

• Xuanyuan Jun replayed the chess game with Bai Di’s moves at its core and recognized that Bai Di might still pursue his ambition to unify Azure Waves despite his crippled cultivation.
• Xuanyuan Jun considered how Bai Di could profit from the conflict between himself and the Yang Clan, while noting that other powerful Canglan Righteous Path cultivators would remain obstacles.
• Xuanyuan Jun reasoned that Chen Yang’s attempt to ascend was destined to fail because the immortal decree barred Lower Cultivators from reaching the Heavenly Sea through normal Tribulation Crossing.
• Xuanyuan Jun admitted that he lacked the intelligence and resources to uncover Bai Di’s plans, so he decided to accelerate the Erosion Plan and seek support from within the Xuanyuan Ancient Clan.

Chen Huai'an trapped the three Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments with his Corpse-Bone Aspect while the Black Lotus Mark prevented them from using Spatial Folding. The Ascendant Will struggled to break through as their stolen cultivator bodies neared collapse.

• Bai Di's Black Lotus Mark clung to the spatial barrier and caused backlash to anyone attempting Spatial Folding.
• Chen Huai'an kept the Demon Soil cultivator's remnant soul beside his own life soul within the Corpse-Bone Aspect and promised to take him out.
• Chen Huai'an endured the Aspect's torment and continued fighting the Ascendant Will.
• The Upper Cultivators struggled to attack the Aspect because its resentments and karmic debts would contaminate their soul bodies.
• The Ascendant Will remained trapped in the secret realm, and the cultivator bodies they controlled began nearing collapse.

Lin Qiao and Ning Jiu led the selected righteous cultivators into the Land of Supreme Treasures after Lin Qiao distributed Yang Clan supplies. Soon after, those who had fought the demonic cultivators began showing subtle, varied symptoms of an unknown influence.

• Two cultivators controlled by Ascendant Will accepted Lin Qiao’s supplies and secretly agreed to avoid conflict with the Yang Clan until their three companions arrived.
• Lin Qiao and the others entered the secret land, while the remaining righteous cultivators stayed on Five Elements Mountain to keep watch.
• Cultivators who had fought the demonic assault began experiencing mild thirst, bodily heat, red spots in their eyes, or stronger cravings for treasure.
• Yang Xuanqing, Yang Xuanlang, Yang Yuanzhen, and some lower-realm cultivators showed no symptoms, while several peerless geniuses and Ascendant Wills noticed the changes.
• The changes appeared as Xuanyuan Zeyuan and an Ascendant Will faced peril, another Ascendant Will was surrounded by Chi Tian and Demon Soil cultivators, and Lin Qiao’s group had just entered the secret land.

Chen Yang learned from Yang Yuanzhen that Demonic Corruption was spreading through cultivators in Five Elements Mountain and could soon twist their minds, while Lin Qiao reported that her group had also been affected. The corruption’s source remained unclear, but Chen Yang prepared to share Yang Yuanzhen’s findings with the Yang Clan.

• Yang Yuanzhen used Dust-Leaving to detect foreign karmic force accumulating in righteous-path cultivators at the temporary market.
• Yang Yuanzhen told Chen Yang that the force resembled what had come from demonic cultivators but seemed driven by a greater tide, and might twist cultivators’ minds within one or two days.
• Chen Yang considered using Yang Yuanzhen’s perception to alert the Yang Clan cultivators in other Secret Realms.
• Lin Qiao informed Chen Yang that she, Ning Jiu, and the others had developed signs of Demonic Corruption.
• Lin Qiao explained that Bai Yu had used Dragon-Scale Transmission to reveal the corruption, which had also appeared in Bai Yu herself.

Chen Yang and Yang Yuanzhen used Dust-Leaving to cleanse demonic qi from afflicted cultivators across much of Five Elements Mountain, but they could not save everyone. After the half-day limit, they encountered a corrupted cultivator hunting others for treasures, and Yang Yuanzhen saved his intended victim from a lethal ambush.

• Chen Yang carried Yang Yuanzhen as she used Dust-Leaving to sever demonic qi’s karmic ties from afflicted cultivators in the middle and lower northern sections of Five Elements Mountain.
• Yang Yuanzhen found a cultivator whose corruption had already overwhelmed his mind and could not be reversed.
• The corrupted cultivator pursued a female cultivator, driven by an obsessive hunger for opportunities and treasures.
• Yang Yuanzhen cleansed the female cultivator’s demonic qi just before the corrupted man attacked her.
• The female cultivator dodged the attack and confronted the man, recognizing that something was wrong with him.

Chen Yang realized Bai Di’s Demon Corruption Plan had destabilized Five Elements Mountain’s phenomena, and the resulting spatial turbulence opened a chance for trapped Ascendant Wills to escape. Xuanyuan Zeyuan also tried to flee, but Yan Zhuohua ambushed him with Qianyang Heavenly Flame.

• Chen Yang traced Bai Di’s plan from the infiltration and sacrificial formations to the mass corruption shaking Five Elements Mountain’s phenomena.
• Three hours after the corruption erupted, spatial turbulence made the mountain’s secret places deadly, mutated its treasures, and cracked dimensional barriers and New Heaven’s seals.
• Four Ascendant Wills escaped their occupied bodies and returned to Five Elements Mountain, hoping to seize new bodies amid the chaos.
• Xuanyuan Zeyuan attempted a spatial leap after sacrificing his lifespan, but Yan Zhuohua blocked his path with Qianyang Heavenly Flame.

After Xuanyuan Zeyuan died, his Technique Spirit escaped, while four other Ascendant Wills sought bodies to possess. Lin Qiao and the New Heaven cultivators emerged from the secret realm and split up to pursue the escapees and contain the demonic corruption, as Ming Fang watched Bai Yu warily.

• Xuanyuan Zeyuan's Technique Spirit escaped into the mountain forest, preserving traces of his final battle.
• Lin Qiao, Ning Jiu, and the others broke out of the secret realm after the two Upper Cultivator souls escaped during a Spatial Shock.
• The New Heaven cultivators divided their forces, sending Lin Qiao and three companions after the souls and Bai Yu and Ming Fang to suppress the demonic corruption.
• Bai Yu and Ming Fang used the Buddha-Eye Dharma Form to cleanse the upper mountain and rescue corrupted cultivators, who then went to help contain the calamity.
• Ming Fang kept watch on Bai Yu because he suspected she had another motive for joining the secret realm operation.

Bai Yu and Ming Fang searched the battlefield for traces left by Xuanyuan Zeyuan before moving on, while Xuanyuan Jun sensed someone refining his Technique Spirit. He concluded that the person was another incarnation of himself and wondered why it had entered the Immortal Abode Secret Realm.

• Bai Yu swore to Ming Fang that her actions served the New Heaven Grand Plan and the rebirth of Azure Waves.
• Bai Yu and Ming Fang searched the area where Yang Yuanling and his companions had killed Xuanyuan Zeyuan, finding and clearing traces of his techniques.
• Bai Yu secretly retrieved the Technique Spirit without Ming Fang noticing.
• Xuanyuan Jun sensed that someone was refining his Technique Spirit and deduced that the person was another incarnation of himself.
• Xuanyuan Jun wondered whether his other incarnation had come to the Immortal Abode Secret Realm because of the Yang Clan, then wrote a character on a blank sheet of paper.

Xuanyuan Jun began planning how to contact the Reincarnated True Lord in the Immortal Abode Secret Realm, while Bai Yu and Ming Fang prepared to intercept an Ascendant Will heading toward them. Ming Fang urged Bai Yu to be careful, saying he believed her oath and trusted she would not become their enemy.

• Xuanyuan Jun sensed the newly fallen Technique Spirit and decided to seek an opportunity to meet the Reincarnated True Lord who had helped recover it.
• Xuanyuan Jun replaced his chessboard and began recalculating his plans for the Immortal Abode Secret Realm.
• Yang Yuanling warned Bai Yu and Ming Fang that an Ascendant Will had escaped an ambush and was heading their way.
• Bai Yu gave Ming Fang the Prismatic Lotus Demon Lamp, taught him its incantation, and supplied him with pills to restore spiritual essence.
• Ming Fang told Bai Yu that he believed her oath and trusted she would not become their enemy, then urged her to act carefully.

Three Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments hid from New Heaven pursuers, reasoned that the Yang Clan and Demonic Dao had made a transaction, and hoped to escape the Secret Realm. Bai Yu searched their hiding place with a Sensing Stone Tablet but failed to find them and flew toward the mountain’s foot.

• The Ascendant Will and two other Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments discussed their escape and suspected the Yang Clan had traded access to the Secret Realm for the Demonic Path’s spatial Daoist Magic.
• The three decided to avoid further fights and wait for a chance to transfer their souls into new host bodies.
• Bai Yu flew toward the hiding place, prompting the fragments to fear they had been exposed.
• Bai Yu used a Sensing Stone Tablet to search the area but detected nothing and left for the mountain’s foot.

Bai Yu assessed the remaining Ascendant Wills and coordinated with the other cultivators as they hunted them across Five Elements Mountain. After Ming Fang recovered, the two resumed descending the mountain to clear the Demonic Corruption.

• Bai Yu considered the threat posed by the Reincarnated True Lord and used Dragon-Scale Transmission to tell the others that he had slain an Upper Cultivator.
• Yang Yuanling, Chi Tian, and the others hurried to support Ning Jiu, while Chen Huai'an went to help Lin Qiao pursue the fleeing Ascendant Will.
• Bai Yu met Ming Fang, took back the multicolored lotus demon lamp, and protected him while he rested.
• Bai Yu learned that Ning Jiu had driven an Ascendant Will into a dead-end space and that Chen Huai'an and Lin Qiao were searching the lower mountain for the other fleeing soul.
• After Ming Fang recovered, he and Bai Yu continued down the mountain to clear out the Demonic Corruption.

Chen Yang sent support toward the mountain when the Ascendant Will put Yang Yuanling, Chi Tian, and Ning Jiu in danger, while Bai Yu and the others continued hunting the Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment. Xu Zheng then located the fragment inside a hidden cave dwelling, leaving Bai Yu poised to pursue contact with the Reincarnated True Lord.

• After Yang Yuanling's message cut off, Chen Yang ordered Chen Huai'an and Lin Qiao to abandon their pursuit and support the group fighting the Ascendant Will.
• Chen Yang summoned another clone and brought Yang Yuanzhen along to assist, while Xu Zheng stayed below with Bai Yu and the others to hunt the Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment.
• Xuanyuan Jun used his game to put three White stones in danger, expecting the Yang Clan to send help, and paused over a subtle connection between two stones at the board's center.
• Bai Yu recognized that the Reincarnated True Lord had engineered the crisis to force her to seek the other Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment.
• Xu Zheng reported that he had found the fragment possessing a cultivator and had chased it into a hidden cave dwelling in the mountain.

Yang Yuanling, Ning Jiu, and Chi Tian struggled against the Upper Cultivator’s Five Elements Sorceries while Ning Jiu prepared a sword strike. The old demon and Lingxiao Dao Academy’s old patriarch exchanged taunts as the fight continued.

• Yang Yuanling used Chen Yang’s Stone Body Clone’s abilities to delay the formation of a massive earth-element Earth Dragon underground.
• Yang Yuanling warned Ning Jiu and Chi Tian that the Upper Cultivator might use the earth technique to form gold-path sorcery and sever her wood techniques.
• Ning Jiu summoned her sword intent and asked Chi Tian and Yang Yuanling to protect her for a quarter of an hour while she prepared to strike the Upper Cultivator.
• Yang Yuanling raised a protective screen around Ning Jiu, while Chi Tian transformed into a winged skeletal tiger and spread blood mist to thwart the heavenly techniques’ targeting.
• The old demon mocked the Lingxiao Dao Academy’s old patriarch for Chi Tian’s transformation, and the patriarch replied that Luo Qianchou deserved credit for raising her.

Ning Jiu used the Sword Ancestor Wuduan’s sword intent to strike the three Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments, severely wounding the old devil while the other two escaped with lesser injuries. The old patriarch then proposed that the fragments possess Yang Yuanling and use the Earth Dragon’s disorder to complete their Five Elements Cycle Technique.

• Ning Jiu invoked the sword and locked onto the three Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments with her sword intent.
• The old devil tried to withdraw his Spiritual Sense, but Wuduan’s Uncaused Sword Intent struck his soul body.
• The old devil used Heart Demon Transference to preserve his soul’s core, while the other two fragments suffered only minor injuries.
• The old devil accused the Dao Academy’s old patriarch and the Confluence Faction cultivator of setting him up, but they denied it and left him isolated.
• The old patriarch suggested possessing Yang Yuanling while the Earth Dragon was disordered, so they could perfect their Five Elements Cycle Technique.

Yang Yuanling, Ning Jiu, and Chi Tian faced two Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments after the Five Elements Rotation Dharma Form sealed and stabilized the dead-end space. Chi Tian urged the women to prioritize escape and wait for reinforcements, and Ning Jiu launched the next attack as the chapter ended.

• The Five Elements Rotation Dharma Form absorbed the chaotic currents and reinforced the space, making escape and outside intervention more difficult.
• The two Upper Cultivator Soul Fragments revealed themselves, and Chi Tian warned Yang Yuanling and Ning Jiu to avoid a direct fight and escape if necessary.
• Chi Tian explained that he had a life-preserving method and asked the women to stall the soul fragments until reinforcements arrived.
• The Confluence Faction cultivator said the soul fragments could not let the three leave, while Ning Jiu taunted them and claimed she would capture them alive.
• Ning Jiu summoned Uncaused Sword Intent and charged the two soul fragments.

Yang Yuanling faced the Confluence Faction's Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment in a metal-rich ore deposit chosen to counter her Wood Dao. She evaded his opening ambush, while he prepared to probe her abilities and magic treasure with further attacks.

• The Grand Patriarch and the Confluence Faction cultivator used Five Elements Rotation Power to separate Ning Jiu and Chi Tian from Yang Yuanling.
• Yang Yuanling sensed that she had been transported to an ore deposit saturated with Metal Dao aura and recognized it as a battlefield chosen to hinder her Wood Dao.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment appeared and taunted Yang Yuanling before secretly launching six streams of golden light at her.
• Yang Yuanling used the Black Armor Divine Ability and an illusory body technique to evade the ambush.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment decided to bombard Yang Yuanling with sorcery to expose the abilities of her stone magic treasure, then sent more golden light after her.

Yang Yuanling's wood-based lightning badly wounded the Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment, who revealed that the Yang Clan had stumbled upon his group by chance and was doomed by its own fortune. He drew on the mineral vein to form a metal body and trap Yang Yuanling and Chen Yang, then declared that he and his allies were true ascendants from Canglan's past.

• Yang Yuanling's Yi-Wood True Lightning exploited the Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment's weakness against forces harmful to yin beings and damaged him severely.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment recognized that the Yang Clan had gained much from the Treasure of Creation and said it had found his group through a petty official's luck.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment said the Yang Clan's fortune had become the source of its calamity and began drawing the Metal Dao Breath from the mineral vein.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment formed a metal body, summoned two spatially empowered golden blades, and sealed the area with a metal-art barrier.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment claimed that he and his allies were true ascendants from Canglan's past, far beyond the reach of Lower Cultivators.

Yang Yuanling fought a Confluence Faction Upper Cultivator while her Echo Retention artifact secretly preserved his admission that he and two others had descended into the Lower Realm. The Upper Cultivator tried to bargain for information about the Yang Clan’s Treasure of Creation, and Yang Yuanling appeared to consider his offer as he invoked her father’s rise and the clan’s internal strife.

• Yang Yuanling used Echo Retention to record the Upper Cultivator’s confession that he and two others had secretly descended their souls into the Lower Realm.
• Yang Yuanling kept evading the golden swords and striking the Upper Cultivator with cyan heavenly lightning, which failed to penetrate his golden defenses.
• The Upper Cultivator offered to spare Yang Yuanling and help her escape if she revealed what she knew about the Yang Clan’s Treasure of Creation.
• Yang Yuanling refused, but the Upper Cultivator slowed his attacks and urged her to reconsider.
• The Upper Cultivator brought up Yang Yuanling’s father’s growing renown and the dispute over who should lead the Yang Clan.

The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment realized Chen Huai'an had entered the mining grounds and severed his link with the other two fragments. Confident that his Golden Body and anti-dragon techniques gave him the advantage, he sent golden clones into the mist while Yang Yuanling continued attacking him with lightning.

• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment detected water-path mist over the mining grounds and failed to reach the old demon or the Dao Academy patriarch through Thought Transmission.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment concluded that Chen Huai'an had entered the perilous space and dismissed the threat, believing his anti-dragon techniques could cripple him.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment searched the mist for Chen Huai'an but could not find him, while the fog slowed his golden blades pursuing Yang Yuanling.
• The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment sent golden-light clones into the mist to locate Chen Huai'an or force him to reveal himself.
• Yang Yuanling struck the Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment's Golden Body with another bolt of Azure-Light Heavenly Thunder, and he mocked her attack.

The Upper Cultivator's split soul uncovered the rust-corrosion art damaging his Golden Body and decided to kill Yang Yuanling and Chen Huai'an before the fight could drag on. He lured Chen Huai'an into revealing his dragon body, then decapitated him and turned back toward Yang Yuanling.

• The Upper Cultivator's split soul discovered that the illusion had hidden rust spreading through his Golden Body and realized Yang Yuanling and Chen Huai'an had coordinated their arts to trigger the corrosion.
• The Upper Cultivator's split soul chose to attack Yang Yuanling directly rather than waste time trying to remove the rust.
• Chen Huai'an revealed his dragon body and attacked the Upper Cultivator with a torrent of water.
• The Upper Cultivator pierced Chen Huai'an with a harpoon-shaped phantom and pinned him to the mine tunnel wall.
• The Upper Cultivator used Geng Metal Crescent Blade Decapitates the Dragon to sever Chen Huai'an's head, then threatened Yang Yuanling.