Recaps

After escaping to an abandoned quarry, Lu Yuan’s group treated their wounded while the collapse buried the false ruins clues and the mysterious Shadow Guards vanished. Lu Qinghe survived but needed rare medicines to heal his damaged meridians, and Lu Yuan resolved to gather the ingredients, find a new base, and settle accounts with the Cloud Mist Sect and Shadow Guards.

• Lu Yuan and his companions reached an abandoned quarry, where Shen Moxin treated Lu Qinghe and the others.
• A distant cave-in followed the Shadow Guards’ sudden withdrawal, and rumors about the buried ruins spread as the Cloud Mist Sect and Inspection Office forces pulled back.
• Lin Xiao woke and learned that Lu Qinghe needed rare ingredients for the Origin-Fortifying and Essence-Nurturing Decoction to avoid permanent injury.
• Lu Yuan promised his father would recover and vowed that everyone responsible for the injuries would pay.
• Shen Moxin proposed scouting an abandoned shelter in the Silent Hills, and Lu Yuan agreed to investigate once the wounded were steadier.
• Lu Yuan said he would contact Miss Bai Zhi for Moonlight Orchid floral dew and declared that the group would settle its debts with the Cloud Mist Sect and Shadow Guards.

Lu Yuan met Bai Zhi at an abandoned temple, where she gave him Moon Silver Orchid Floral Dew to treat Lu Qinghe and warned him that the Cloud Mist Sect was secretly investigating the collapsed ruins. Her offer of a hidden contact point left Lu Yuan with a valuable new ally as he headed back to the quarry to heal his father and prepare to move to the Silent Hills.

• Li Wangye placed Lu Yuan's signal at the East Market and returned safely to the quarry.
• Lu Yuan met Bai Zhi at the abandoned earth god's temple and explained that his father needed Moon Silver Orchid Floral Dew.
• Bai Zhi gave Lu Yuan her last three drops of floral dew without asking for payment.
• Bai Zhi warned Lu Yuan about hidden watchers in town and the Cloud Mist Sect's renewed investigation into the collapsed ruins.
• Bai Zhi shared a concealed contact point in an abandoned herb warehouse south of town before leaving.
• Lu Yuan returned toward the quarry with the dew, intending to heal Lu Qinghe and then find a new base in the Silent Hills.

Lu Yuan and his companions turned an underground cavern into a hidden refuge while Lu Qinghe recovered, and Lu Yuan resolved to build Spark into a lasting system of power. Lin Xiao then reported that Deacon Han was searching for them alone.

• Mo Chen led the group to a dry cavern, where Shen Moxin treated Lu Qinghe and Lu Yuan assigned the watch shifts.
• Over three days, Mo Chen set traps, Su Yan and Li Wangye organized the cavern, Shen Moxin nursed Lu Qinghe, Lin Xiao scouted the tunnels, and Mr. Wen mapped them.
• Lu Yuan planned the refuge and reflected on the threats facing them, deciding that Spark needed to become a system capable of producing Core Flames.
• Lin Xiao returned from scouting and told Lu Yuan that Deacon Han was searching for them alone, without anyone from the Inspection Office.

Lu Yuan received Deacon Han’s invitation to meet privately and went to the grove with Mo Chen’s warning devices in place. Deacon Han proposed cooperation based on Lu Yuan’s knowledge and Su Yan’s ability, leaving Lu Yuan to consider the offer.

• Lin Xiao reported that Deacon Han had left a meeting note near the mine, and Lu Yuan decided to meet him while keeping Lin Xiao hidden nearby.
• Lu Yuan assigned Shen Moxin, Su Yan, and Li Wangye to guard the hideout and set out with Mo Chen for the grove.
• Mo Chen planted warning and interference devices around the meeting spot, then hid while Lu Yuan waited alone.
• Deacon Han arrived alone and told Lu Yuan he knew about the fabricated ruins clues and Su Yan’s Soul Power technique.
• Deacon Han offered a different kind of cooperation involving technology or training to strengthen the empire’s lower-level Soul Masters.

Lu Yuan heard Deacon Han’s offer to train Soul Masters for a powerful imperial reformist in exchange for protection, supplies, and pressure on the Cloud Mist Sect. He postponed his decision for three days, demanded help punishing those who injured his father, and told Spark’s members they must preserve their independence and principles.

• Deacon Han offered Lu Yuan an imperial partnership to train recruits in practical Soul Power control and tactics, promising a secure site, supplies, and pressure on the Cloud Mist Sect.
• Lu Yuan asked whether the empire could assist with limited retaliation against the people who injured his father, and Deacon Han said he would seek instructions.
• Lu Yuan agreed to give Deacon Han an answer within three days and returned to the mine with Lin Xiao and Mo Chen.
• Lu Yuan explained the offer to Shen Moxin, Mo Chen, Lin Xiao, Su Yan, Li Wangye, and Mr. Wen, who raised concerns about the empire exploiting their knowledge and eventually suppressing them.
• Lu Yuan told Spark to consider the offer carefully while insisting that the Cloud Mist Sect must pay for his father’s injury and that Spark must not abandon its principles.

Deacon Han offered Lu Yuan tacit imperial permission to retaliate against the Cloud Mist Sect in exchange for long-term cooperation, prompting Lu Yuan and his allies to weigh the cost of surrendering control of their training method. Lu Yuan proposed a limited partnership while keeping their teachings independent and establishing a Spark Lecture Hall in the mine tunnels.

• Deacon Han told Lu Yuan that the Inspection Office would investigate the Cloud Mist Sect if evidence supported their wrongdoing, but said the arrangement depended on future cooperation and demanded Lu Yuan's answer in three days.
• Lu Yuan repeated the offer to his companions, and Shen Moxin, Mo Chen, and Lin Xiao discussed the risks and benefits of cooperating with the empire.
• Lu Qinghe argued that they had to keep their training path in their own hands, reminding the group that it had helped him break through a long-standing bottleneck.
• Lu Yuan proposed an equal, limited partnership with the empire that would preserve their control of their core theories and training methods.
• Lu Yuan announced plans to establish a Spark Lecture Hall in the mine tunnels, where they would teach, research, and train Soul Masters who shared their ideals.

Lu Yuan organized Spark Academy, negotiated supplies and intelligence with Deacon Han, and began training five recruits in the mine. After Lin Xiao brought back a map of a Cloud Mist Sect shipment route, a warning arrived that the sect might suspect a local force near Old Crow Ridge.

• Lu Yuan assigned Shen Moxin, Mo Chen, Li Wangye, Su Yan, Lin Xiao, and Lu Qinghe duties in establishing Spark Academy inside the mine.
• Lu Yuan negotiated with Deacon Han for construction supplies, five recruits, and intelligence on Cloud Mist Sect outposts in exchange for a limited three-month training program.
• The supplies arrived, the mine was renovated into classrooms, dormitories, and a workshop, and Shen Moxin completed three introductory textbooks.
• Five youths arrived and began training in Soul Power control, energy models, and body coordination under Shen Moxin and Su Yan.
• Lin Xiao returned with a map showing when Cloud Mist Sect escorts carried soul crystals through Mute Pass.
• Li Wangye delivered Mo Chen's warning that the Cloud Mist Sect might suspect a local force near Old Crow Ridge of involvement in the prisoner interception.

Lu Yuan opened his lecture hall by teaching the students to control Soul Power and reconsider supposedly useless Martial Souls, encouraging a poor student to explore his rusty short blade’s hidden potential. After learning that the Cloud Mist Sect had hired specialists and tightened patrols, Lu Yuan decided to change the plan and strike hard enough to deter them while recruiting more students.

• Lu Yuan began the lecture hall’s first lesson, explaining that Soul Power needed to be channeled and controlled, not merely accumulated.
• Lu Yuan argued that Martial Souls labeled as trash could have specialized uses, then helped a poor student detect a possible trait in his rusty short blade.
• The students debated Lu Yuan’s ideas, while the commoner student thanked him and resolved to train his control.
• Lin Xiao told Lu Yuan that the Cloud Mist Sect had posted a bounty for experts in ancient Soul Tool patterns and mechanical traps, increased patrols at Mute Pass, and brought unfamiliar trackers near the mine.
• Lu Yuan decided to revise the plan, injure the Cloud Mist Sect badly enough to deter further interference, and bring more useful people into the lecture hall.

Lu Yuan’s group raided a Cloud Mist Sect ore convoy to teach their trainees about combat coordination and openly marked the raid with the name Spark. After the Listening Wind Pavilion began investigating and rumors branded them a cult, Lu Yuan ordered the group to keep building their strength without retreating.

• Su Yan triggered the interference sphere, and Lin Xiao, Mo Chen, and Lu Yuan defeated the convoy guards in under sixty breaths and took the highest-purity ore.
• Lu Yuan left a metal plate bearing Blue Silver Grass and sparks at the scene, while Shi Xiaochuan and Zhao Tiezhu watched and learned how control, terrain, and coordination could decide a fight.
• Back at the mine, Shi Xiaochuan and Zhao Tiezhu told Lu Yuan they understood the practical value of Soul Power control and coordination.
• Deacon Han told Lu Yuan that the Cloud Mist Sect’s convoy had been robbed and passed on Bai Zhi’s warning that the sect had enlisted the Listening Wind Pavilion and that rumors of an underground cult were spreading.
• Lu Yuan rejected hiding or killing investigators and ordered his group to process the ore, accelerate workshop construction, and continue training.

Lu Yuan responded to the Listening Wind Pavilion’s investigation by ordering an internal cleanup, a discreet campaign to spread Spark’s principles, and a public demonstration targeting a Cloud Mist Sect convoy. A warning from the Shadow Guards revealed that a “cleaner” would arrive within three days, leaving the group braced for an imminent threat.

• Shen Moxin reported that the Listening Wind Pavilion was tracing the group’s purchases and contacts while conflicting rumors about them spread through town.
• After perimeter sensors were triggered and a contact point went dark, Lu Yuan ordered the group to destroy traceable records and spread limited information about Spark’s principles.
• Lu Yuan planned to stop a Cloud Mist Sect Soul Beast convoy at A Thread of Sky using a controlled rockslide, and assigned Mo Chen, Lin Xiao, and Su Yan to prepare.
• Lin Xiao brought Lu Yuan an unsigned warning from the Shadow Guards saying the “key” had been exposed, the “lock” alerted, and a “cleaner” would arrive within three days.
• Lu Yuan identified the “key” as their theoretical system and the “lock” as those opposing it, then told the group to prepare for the coming cleaner.

Lu Yuan and his allies spent three days preparing their base for a Shadow Guard cleanup squad, building layered defenses and planning how to make the attackers reconsider their mission. At nightfall, warning devices began triggering around the perimeter, and Lu Yuan realized the Scavengers had arrived.

• Lu Yuan ordered Mo Chen, Lin Xiao, Shen Moxin, Su Yan, and Li Wangye to reinforce the base, gather supplies, study the Scavengers, and prepare evacuation plans.
• Lu Yuan assumed the attackers would include a Soul King and Soul Ancestors, and planned to make their first assault costly enough to force a retreat.
• Deacon Han confirmed that the Shadow Guards had issued a warning and promised to move the five students to safety; Lu Yuan requested paralytic and a map of Ghost Cry Rift.
• Lin Xiao found signs of enemy scouting, and Shen Moxin identified infiltration or a staged accident as the likeliest attack methods.
• Lu Yuan assigned defenders to three layers of defenses and placed noncombatants and key documents in a secret chamber with an escape passage.
• After night fell on the third day, three perimeter warning devices cracked in succession, and Lu Yuan announced that the Scavengers had arrived.

Lu Yuan’s group used traps and teamwork to kill one Scavenger in the mine, but a second, more dangerous hunter located Lu Yuan and identified him as the Key. The surveillance images went dark, leaving the group facing an enemy whose position and abilities remained unknown.

• Lu Yuan ordered Mo Chen to activate the Hive interference after Lin Xiao found that three intruders had bypassed the tripwire.
• The interference confused a Shadow Jumper, and Lin Xiao ambushed it before breaking away and taking position near the core entrance.
• A bird-beaked Scavenger poisoned Su Yan and Li Wangye, but they delayed him with a counterattack.
• Lu Yuan triggered Mo Chen’s soul crystal dust trap, disrupting the Scavenger’s Soul Power and toxin.
• Lin Xiao struck from hiding and killed the bird-beaked Scavenger, though the Shadow Jumper disappeared.
• A second hunter disabled the metal surveillance images, praised the group’s trap, and declared that it had found Lu Yuan, the Key.

Lu Yuan and Mo Chen used chaotic Soul Power fluctuations to disrupt the scavenger leader’s interference, but the leader overwhelmed their defenses and moved to kill Lu Yuan. Lu Qinghe stepped between them, giving Lu Yuan time to activate the hidden central node of his network, whose strange resonance began to spread.

• Lu Yuan activated buried soul crystals to create a chaotic Soul Power noise field that disrupted the scavenger leader’s perception and shadow techniques.
• Lin Xiao wounded the second shadow jumper, and Mo Chen’s explosive Soul Tool blasted the attacker out of the shadows.
• The scavenger leader suppressed Lu Yuan’s noise field, but Mo Chen detonated preset soul crystal nodes to disrupt his control.
• The leader broke Mo Chen’s Defensive Soul Tool and arms, then advanced on Lu Yuan with a dark Soul Power spike.
• Lu Qinghe, badly wounded and armed with his iron hoe, stepped in front of Lu Yuan and made the leader hesitate.
• Lu Yuan activated the network’s hidden central node, releasing a strange resonance from the rock.

Lu Yuan detonated the treated soul crystals to stop the Scavengers leader, but mysterious Shadow Guards intervened and halted the attack after sensing abnormal Lock fluctuations. The survivors regrouped amid severe injuries and destruction, while Lu Yuan realized the guards had not released them and were instead choosing to observe them.

• Lu Yuan triggered a Soul Power storm that gravely wounded the Scavengers leader and left Lu Yuan and his allies badly injured.
• As the Scavengers leader prepared to strike Lu Yuan, shadowy figures appeared and ordered Scavengers Number Three to abort the mission, postponing the Key's elimination and switching to observation and isolation.
• The Shadow Guards engulfed the wounded Scavengers leader and the Shadow Jump user, then vanished into the mine's darkness.
• Shen Moxin and Li Wangye arrived and began helping the injured Mo Chen, Lin Xiao, Lu Yuan, and Lu Yuan's father.
• Lu Yuan connected the Shadow Guards' orders to the Lock's abnormal fluctuations and told the others they had not been let go, while something stirred in the deeper mine.

After surviving the Scavengers’ attack, Lu Yuan’s group assessed their injuries and losses while he investigated the Shadow Guards and the mysterious Lock. A message from Bai Zhi revealed that the Lock might constrain Soul Power cultivation, and Lu Yuan resolved to grow stronger and investigate how to break through it.

• Shen Moxin treated the group’s injuries, and Lu Yuan ordered them to assess the damage to their base.
• During the next three days, Lu Yuan recorded the damage and studied the Scavengers’ abilities and the Shadow Guards’ intervention.
• Lu Yuan explained that the Shadow Guards had disagreed over whether to eliminate or observe the group because the Lock’s fluctuations were abnormal.
• A Tu brought Lu Yuan a wooden box from Bai Zhi, whose coded message described two Shadow Guard factions and linked the Lock to ancient limits on Soul Power cultivation.
• Lu Yuan concluded that his theories might threaten the Lock and told the group they needed to become powerful enough to make eliminating them costly.
• Mo Chen, Lin Xiao, Shen Moxin, Li Wangye, and Su Yan took on repair, defense, research, and supply tasks while Lu Yuan told Lu Qinghe to recover.

Lu Yuan theorized that Martial Souls were bound by a Lock that restricted their connection to energy, then used carefully controlled Soul Power fluctuations to probe the restriction. He sensed a more fundamental energy through a new leaf on his Blue Silver Grass, just as hostile groups closed in on Old Crow Ridge.

• Lu Yuan briefly stirred his Blue Silver Grass by imitating complex Soul Power fluctuations and theorized that chaotic energy could loosen its suppressed Origin.
• Lu Yuan told Shen Moxin, Mo Chen, and Lin Xiao that Martial Souls were constrained by Shackles, which he suspected were the Lock described in Bai Zhi's intelligence.
• Lu Yuan spent several days developing a resonance model with Shen Moxin and Mo Chen, enduring repeated backlash as he refined his Soul Power control.
• Lu Yuan used the resonance model to produce a slender silver-veined leaf bud on his Blue Silver Grass and sensed a faint connection to energy beyond Soul Power.
• Lin Xiao warned Lu Yuan that the Listening Wind Pavilion was searching Old Crow Ridge and that the Cloud Mist Sect had sent more people after its agents disappeared.

Lu Yuan diverted the Listening Wind Pavilion and Cloud Mist Sect toward Mist Canyon, buying his group time to improve their defenses and research. After Bai Zhi warned that the Cloud Mist Sect would sweep Old Crow Ridge with a detection device, the silver leaf bud revealed a longing for an unknown, star-like energy, leaving Lu Yuan to seek a safer hiding place and a breakthrough.

• Lu Yuan had Mo Chen forge fake clues to an ancient Soul Tool and unusual Soul Power in Mist Canyon, while Lin Xiao planted a matching story with the Cloud Mist Sect.
• The Listening Wind Pavilion and Cloud Mist Sect followed the false trail, clashed at Mist Canyon, and eased their pressure on Old Crow Ridge as Lu Yuan’s group repaired the workshop, made detection alarms, and trained.
• Bai Zhi reported that the Listening Wind Pavilion was assessing Spark and the “Key,” while the Cloud Mist Sect, after losing a Soul King, prepared a large-scale detection sweep of the eastern Black Stone Mountain Range.
• Lu Yuan realized the group’s respite was over and that their base might not withstand the coming search.
• The silver leaf bud conveyed a longing for a cold, heavy energy like fragments of stars, and Lu Yuan set out to find a new hiding place and a way to locate it.

Lu Yuan met Gray Harrier of the Listening Wind Pavilion, who offered help evading the Cloud Mist Sect’s coming search in exchange for answers and an information channel. Lu Yuan postponed his decision and ended the chapter holding the communication device, uncertain whether to accept the deal.

• Li Wangye reported that someone had triggered node three by knocking on it three times with Soul Power, and Lu Yuan went to investigate with him.
• Lu Yuan met Gray Harrier outside the mine, and Gray Harrier revealed that the Listening Wind Pavilion had investigated Lu Yuan’s theories and the group’s defenses.
• Gray Harrier warned that the Cloud Mist Sect would sweep the eastern Black Stone Mountain Range within three days and offered device weaknesses and an evacuation route in exchange for information and ongoing contact.
• Lu Yuan asked for time to consider the proposal, and Gray Harrier left a metal communication piece and a cryptic message about locks and keys.
• Shen Moxin determined that the metal piece could communicate and reveal their location if activated, while Lu Yuan held it without deciding what to do.

Lu Yuan renegotiated a deal with Gray Harrier for detection-device weaknesses, intelligence, and a secret escape route, while limiting what Spark would reveal. After Mo Chen discovered a hidden tracking mark on the map, Lu Yuan ordered preparations to evacuate and asked him to turn the mark against the Listening Wind Pavilion.

• Lu Yuan proposed verifying the detection-device information first, limiting the information channel, and requiring monthly intelligence summaries from the Listening Wind Pavilion.
• Gray Harrier accepted the revised terms, shared intelligence about the Shadow Guards and Cloud Mist Sect, and handed over a rune diagram, interference frequencies, and a secret route through the Black Stone Mountain Range.
• Gray Harrier warned that the Cloud Mist Sect's search would begin by the morning after next, and Mo Chen confirmed the technical information appeared genuine.
• Mo Chen discovered a hidden Soul Power tracking mark on the map, and Lu Yuan told him to alter it to feed false information or a surprise to whoever was tracking them.
• Lu Yuan ordered an immediate evacuation and told Shen Moxin to finish verifying the route so they could leave before dawn.

Lu Yuan’s group escaped through a secret passage while Lin Xiao lured a Cloud Mist Sect search party into an Iron Armored Poison Scorpion nest. After the group reached the passage’s exit, Lin Xiao spotted firelight and heard voices nearby, leaving their safety uncertain.

• Mo Chen made a stronger, controllable tracking-signal decoy, and Lu Yuan sent Lin Xiao to plant it near the scorpion nest.
• Lu Yuan led the others into the secret passage with their research notes, Soul Marrow Essence, and essential equipment.
• Lin Xiao planted the decoy at the nest and escaped as the Cloud Mist Sect search party followed the signal inside and was overwhelmed by scorpions and a thousand-year Scorpion King.
• Lin Xiao rejoined Lu Yuan’s group, reported that the search party was fighting the scorpions, and the group continued toward the passage exit.
• The group emerged into a secluded valley, where Lin Xiao noticed firelight and heard several voices in the nearby forest.

Lu Yuan and his group found a wary settlement of refugees with unstable Martial Souls and asked to camp nearby. After Shen Moxin saved a child suffering from runaway Soul Power, Shi Jian allowed them to stay at the valley entrance, while Lu Yuan noticed more signs that the refuge held a mystery.

• Lu Yuan and Lin Xiao discovered a small settlement and approached its armed residents, who were led by the one-armed Shi Jian.
• Shi Jian questioned Lu Yuan about the group’s origins and refused to let the outsiders enter the settlement.
• When a boy named Huzi began convulsing from unstable Soul Power, Shen Moxin treated him with a Clear Heart Pill and guided his Soul Power back under control.
• Shi Jian permitted Lu Yuan’s group to camp on the valley’s outskirts, warning them to avoid the houses and fields and not cause trouble.
• Lu Yuan watched the settlement’s defenses and observed several residents whose Martial Souls appeared to cause physical changes or behave abnormally.

Lu Yuan and his companions gradually gained the trust of the settlement’s residents while he studied their abnormal Martial Souls. He proposed that Shi Jian could turn the cracks in his broken shield into a new defensive technique, leaving Shi Jian stunned and hopeful.

• Lu Yuan told Shen Moxin to treat minor illnesses among the residents, and she helped a child with boils and an old man with leg pain.
• Lin Xiao shared roasted pheasant with a local man, who suspected the group were Soul Masters and offered help.
• Over three days, Shen Moxin and Lin Xiao helped residents, while Lu Yuan observed several people with mutated or unstable Martial Souls.
• Lu Yuan found Shi Jian struggling with his cracked shield and asked what he thought a Martial Soul was.
• Lu Yuan explained that Shi Jian’s cracks were flaws in the channel through which his Martial Soul manifested, then suggested using them to circulate and deflect Soul Power.
• Shi Jian reacted with shock and a glimmer of hope, asking whether the cracks could be useful.

Lu Yuan taught Shi Jian to guide the erratic Soul Power leaking through his damaged rock shield, allowing him to briefly deflect an attack. His success drew the settlement’s other outcasts to Lu Yuan for advice, while Wu Meng grew wary that the newcomers’ influence would disrupt their home.

• Lu Yuan taught Shi Jian to study the Soul Power scattering through his cracked shield and gently guide one familiar pattern.
• After three days of practice, Shi Jian produced a faint vortex that slightly deflected a stone, and Lu Yuan showed him the shield could turn attacks aside.
• Shi Jian demonstrated his progress to the settlement, drawing people with damaged or unusual Martial Souls to the camp.
• Lu Yuan explained how people could study their Martial Souls’ flaws and turn them into specialized strengths, while Shen Moxin, Mo Chen, and Lin Xiao helped instruct the crowd.
• Wu Meng dismissed Lu Yuan’s teachings as tricks and told his companions to watch the newcomers and protect the settlement from disruption.

After Lin Xiao reported that the Cloud Mist Sect and Stone-Splitting Sect were closing in, Lu Yuan faced a divided camp and announced that his group would leave. He planned to move toward ancient Soul Tool ruins and secure volunteers, while also devising a way to force Wu Meng’s faction to reconsider.

• Lin Xiao reported that the Cloud Mist Sect had allied with the Stone-Splitting Sect and that their search would soon reach the valley.
• Wu Meng blamed Lu Yuan and demanded that he leave, while Shi Jian defended Lu Yuan and urged the Soul Masters to learn and fight rather than wait to be killed.
• Lu Yuan stopped the confrontation and told the camp that anyone who wanted them gone would not be forced to follow them.
• Lu Yuan told his companions that they had to leave because the valley risked exposure, but that retreating without supplies or a plan would be dangerous.
• Lu Yuan proposed moving to ancient Soul Tool ruins near the Star Dou Forest and recruiting Shi Jian and other willing Soul Masters.
• Lu Yuan said they would stabilize the camp and create an opportunity to make Wu Meng’s opposition understand that neither staying nor driving them away would solve the danger.

Lu Yuan and his allies demonstrated their techniques and offered the valley residents a choice: join them on their journey to establish a new base in the Black Stone Mountain Range or stay behind. Most chose to follow, but the Cloud Mist Sect soon discovered their trail and sent pursuers to intercept them.

• Mo Chen demonstrated how his Bee Sting control crossbow could clear dust from a marked circle, and Lin Xiao showed how he could exploit a rock's weakness and redirect a fragment with precision.
• Lu Yuan inscribed a glowing circuit into the boulder, demonstrating how Soul Power could be shaped to influence structures and the surrounding energy.
• Lu Yuan offered the residents protection and knowledge if they followed him, while warning them not to reveal the group's whereabouts; more than two-thirds chose to leave, and Wu Meng departed with his four brothers.
• Lu Yuan's group packed supplies and left the valley under cover of darkness, with Lu Yuan at the front and Lin Xiao, Mo Chen, Shen Moxin, and Lu Qinghe guarding the group.
• A Cloud Mist Sect Soul King found the group's tracks and ordered his people to pursue them, signal the Stone-Splitting Sect, and capture Lu Yuan and the others alive or bring back their bodies.