Recaps

Sang Ying treated an injured black snake that had hidden in her Storage Bag, then prepared protective formations in Jiang Zhuoxue’s room. The next morning, a customer’s angry outburst downstairs threatened to draw them into new trouble.

• Sang Ying trapped the black snake, treated its wounds, and released it from the inn; the snake reconsidered its distrust of humans before slipping away into the grass.
• Sang Ying set up formations in Jiang Zhuoxue’s room and said she would take him out of the Hidden Nether Realm after learning what was happening outside.
• Jiang Zhuoxue’s young form watched Sang Ying work, while the young man inwardly resented how kindly she treated him.
• Sang Ying went downstairs the next morning but rejected the inn’s food as unsuitable for Jiang Zhuoxue.
• A customer pounded the table and shouted about the food, and Gu Shu persuaded Sang Ying to stay and watch the commotion, which led them toward fresh trouble.

Sang Ying defended the Hidden Nether Realm’s spirit algae from two insulting outsiders and recognized the boy who joined her as Gu Wangchuan in his youth. The troublemakers left after memorizing their faces, while Sang Ying regarded the young future Sword Master with complicated feelings.

• A bronze-skinned outsider mocked the spirit algae and insulted the Hidden Nether Realm, prompting a young cultivator to praise the food and challenge him.
• The outsiders belittled the boy for not having reached the Golden Core stage and disparaged cultivators from the Hidden Nether Realm.
• Sang Ying ordered spirit algae, praised its taste, and challenged the outsiders by asserting her own qualifications as a Golden Core cultivator.
• The male outsider nearly attacked Sang Ying, but his companion stopped him, and the two left after giving Sang Ying and the boy searching looks.
• Gu Shu told Sang Ying that the boy was Gu Wangchuan in his youth, and Sang Ying reconsidered her image of the future Sword Master.

Sang Ying confirmed that the young sword cultivator who had joined her was Gu Wangchuan, though Gu Shu urged her to ask why he had abandoned his sword spirit and bonded sword. After hearing about the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm’s trial ground outside Moonless City, Sang Ying and Gu Wangchuan decided to visit it, unaware that someone was watching them with a knowing smile.

• Sang Ying introduced herself to Gu Wangchuan and confirmed his identity, while Gu Shu urged her to question him about abandoning his sword spirit and bonded sword.
• The innkeeper and other patrons told Sang Ying and Gu Wangchuan about the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm and its trial ground.
• Sang Ying learned that entry cost ten low-grade Spirit Stones and that two rival factions jointly managed the mystic realm.
• Sang Ying and Gu Wangchuan decided to visit the mystic realm while a hidden observer watched them from behind the counter.

The shopkeeper reported that a spy had left the inn for the household opposing them and told the sect master that two outside cultivators had helped defend the inn. The sect master approved the shopkeeper’s plan to recruit them, then told his son that their contest with the Moonless Household was about to begin again.

• After the bells rang, a group of newly refined ferocious corpses crossed Moonless City, and a concealed man slipped out of the inn’s back door.
• The shopkeeper watched the man leave and used a communication talisman to tell the sect master that he was heading toward the household behind the inn trouble.
• The shopkeeper told the sect master that two outside cultivators had defended the inn and asked to win them over; the sect master approved and suggested telling Tong'er about them if they proved capable.
• The sect master sighed at the moonless sky until his son, hanging upside down from a beam, teased him and asked what was wrong.
• The sect master told his son that their contest with the Moonless Household was about to begin again, and the young man’s expression turned cold.

An old cultivator recounted how Sect Master Liu was betrayed by the Moonless Household, escaped, and founded the Yin Mountain Sect, beginning the feud between the two powers. As Sang Ying defended Gu Wangchuan from a hostile cultivator, a white-clad woman intervened to stop a fight near the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm.

• An old cultivator told the crowd that the Moonless Household tried to steal Sect Master Liu’s corpse-refining talent, but Liu escaped after the Secret Method damaged him.
• The old cultivator explained that Liu’s wife helped him recover and develop a method of nurturing corpses, allowing him to return to Moonless City and battle the Moonless Household.
• A hostile cultivator argued that the Moonless Household should have crippled Liu, prompting Gu Wangchuan to mock him for never founding a sect himself.
• The hostile cultivator prepared to attack Gu Wangchuan, and Sang Ying stepped in front of him while Jiang Zhuoxue showed killing intent toward Gu Wangchuan.
• A white-clad young woman descended between the cultivators and warned them that fighting was forbidden in front of the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm.

Sang Ying and the others watched Wuyue Qing clash with a Yin Mountain Sect disciple over the Moonless Household’s past, then reached the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm and paid the Yin Mountain Sect’s entrance fee. The disciple noticed them afterward, apparently reminded of something.

• Wuyue Qing introduced herself as the Moonless Clan’s temporary manager of the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm and offered to explain the trials.
• A Yin Mountain Sect disciple named Liu mocked Wuyue Qing and accused the Moonless Household of courting cultivators, while she defended herself.
• A male cultivator tried to defend Wuyue Qing by bringing up the old grudge between the Moonless Household and the Yin Mountain Sect, worsening her discomfort.
• Liu insulted the Moonless Household and left with his followers, while Wuyue Qing returned to her residence and the visiting cultivators discussed her resemblance to Su Fuyun.
• Sang Ying and the others paid their Spirit Stones to the Yin Mountain Sect at the mystic realm entrance, and Liu glanced at them as if he had remembered something.

Liu Duanyue learned that the three cultivators who entered the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm were staying at a familiar inn, while Sang Ying, Gu Wangchuan, and Jiang Zhuoxue faced the realm's trial. Outside, Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue discussed the contest that would determine who governed Moonless City, which the Moonless Clan had won last time.

• Liu Duanyue learned the three cultivators' inn and told a disciple to notify him when they left the mystic realm.
• Sang Ying, Gu Wangchuan, and Jiang Zhuoxue crossed a dark passage filled with bats, insects, and rats before reaching the trial grounds.
• Sang Ying entered the white radiance and found herself facing a black version of herself wielding a black Floating River Sword.
• Wuyue Qing approached Liu Duanyue as he packed up his stall, and he acknowledged that her efforts had drawn cultivators to the Moonless Household.
• Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue discussed their sides' five-year contest for control of Moonless City, which the Moonless Clan had won most recently.

Sang Ying defeated her trial-ground double by unleashing a new sword move, then entered a second trial against two Demon Beasts. Meanwhile, Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue argued about the trial ground until nine bell tolls announced that someone had completely cleared it.

• Sang Ying bound her wounded arm and used the swordsmanship she had learned from Gu Wangchuan to destroy Black Sang Ying.
• Sang Ying completed the first trial and hurried into the second, where two Demon Beasts appeared.
• Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue argued over the Moonless Household's outside help and the difficulty of clearing all seven trials.
• A bell rang nine times, revealing that someone had completely cleared the trial ground.

After three nine-bell peals announced that three people had completely cleared the Severed Vitality Minor Secret Realm, Liu Duanyue and Wuyue Qing scrambled to recruit them for their rival factions. The Yin Mountain Sect’s disciples rushed to the cave, while Wuyue Qing waited for help from her clan and learned that her brother had ignored her message.

• Liu Duanyue and Wuyue Qing both summoned their people after the bells announced multiple complete clears, and Liu Duanyue sent his junior brother back to the Yin Mountain Sect for reinforcements.
• The Yin Mountain Sect disciples eagerly followed Liu Duanyue’s junior brother toward the secret realm before he had even told Sect Master Liu.
• Wuyue Qing’s steward sought help from Wuyue Hao, but he dismissed her message and went to sleep.
• Wuyue Qing mistook the many arriving flying artifacts for her clan’s reinforcements and smugly greeted them.
• Liu Duanyue discovered that his junior brother had returned with the Yin Mountain Sect’s disciples, and Wuyue Qing’s smile vanished.

Sang Ying, Gu Wangchuan, and Jiang Zhuoxue passed all seven stages of the trial ground and received the mystic realm’s rewards. After they emerged, the Yin Mountain Sect and the Moonless Household competed to recruit them, leaving the three outsiders caught between the rival powers.

• Sang Ying survived the trial ground’s final stage, passed all seven stages, and reunited with Gu Wangchuan and Jiang Zhuoxue.
• The three left the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm, received golden light that restored their strength, and learned they could enter the realm freely and visit Pagoda Mountain in ten days.
• Cultivators crowded around the three and urged them to stay in Moonless City, prompting Sang Ying to say they were only visiting.
• Liu Duanyue introduced himself as the Yin Mountain Sect’s young sect master and invited the three to visit his sect.
• Wuyue Qing offered a more generous invitation on behalf of the Moonless Household, exposing the rivalry between the two powers and leaving Sang Ying and her companions unable to avoid getting involved.

After leaving the trial grounds, Sang Ying and her companions avoided choosing between the Yin Mountain Sect and the Moonless Household and hurried back to Moonless City to plan their departure. Wuyue Qing confronted her brother Wuyue Hao for sleeping through the chance to recruit the three cultivators, and Wuyue Hao resolved to invite them himself to avert his father's anger.

• Sang Ying asked Liu Duanyue and Wuyue Qing for time to discuss their demands, then left with her companions without accepting flying Law Artifacts.
• Liu Duanyue and Wuyue Qing resumed arguing after the three cultivators departed, and Liu Duanyue left to investigate them and devise an offer.
• Wuyue Qing returned to the Moonless Household and learned from the steward that Wuyue Hao had ignored her calls from inside his soundproofed courtyard.
• Wuyue Qing broke through Wuyue Hao's array, dragged him from his sleep, and told him that three cultivators had cleared every trial.
• Wuyue Hao learned from the steward that Wuyue Qing was telling the truth and decided to invite the three cultivators himself.

Wuyue Hao’s father blamed him for alienating Sang Ying and her companions, then gave him one last chance to secure their support. As the three planned to leave the Hidden Nether Realm after visiting Pagoda Mountain, a group led by a young man resembling Wuyue Qing approached their table.

• The Moonless Household head berated Wuyue Hao for offending Sang Ying and the others, then warned he would groom Wuyue Hao’s sister as heir if he failed again.
• Wuyue Hao left his father’s room resentful and resolved not to let his sister surpass him.
• At the inn, Sang Ying and her companions heard people discussing their success in the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm and learned through the innkeeper’s discreet treatment that the Yin Mountain Sect was trying to win them over.
• Gu Wangchuan suggested leaving the Hidden Nether Realm after they visited Pagoda Mountain, and Sang Ying agreed as the three planned to leave Moonless City quietly.
• A luxurious-robed young man resembling Wuyue Qing entered the inn with a group and confronted Sang Ying and her companions.

Wuyue Hao visited Sang Ying and her companions to apologize for his subordinates’ behavior and invite them to the Star-Repelling Pavilion, but they rejected him. He left the inn furious and secretly ordered a subordinate to deal with them.

• Wuyue Hao introduced himself as the eldest young master of the Moonless Household and explained the earlier dispute at the inn.
• Gu Wangchuan pointed out that Wuyue Hao should apologize to the shopkeeper, so Wuyue Hao bowed and apologized to him.
• Wuyue Hao invited Sang Ying, Gu Wangchuan, and Jiang Zhuoxue to the Star-Repelling Pavilion, but Sang Ying repeatedly declined on their behalf.
• Wuyue Hao grew angry when Sang Ying refused to give the Moonless Household face and stormed out with his group.
• Wuyue Hao boarded a flying Law Artifact, gave a subordinate a secret order, and declared that Sang Ying and her companions should die.

Sang Ying and her companions faced a night attack by corpse puppets after deciding to join the Yin Mountain Sect. Sang Ying captured the attackers and prepared to take them to the sect, while Jiang Zhuoxue refused the innkeeper’s offer of help.

• Jiang Zhuoxue urged Sang Ying to work with the Yin Mountain Sect rather than risk making enemies on both sides.
• A corpse puppet attacked Sang Ying’s room, but Sang Ying had already escaped and stabbed its controller.
• Gu Wangchuan blasted a corpse puppet out of his room while still asleep.
• Sang Ying gathered Jiang Zhuoxue and Gu Wangchuan and announced that they would go to the Yin Mountain Sect after she dealt with the attackers.
• The innkeeper offered help, but Jiang Zhuoxue refused, and Sang Ying returned carrying six captured attackers.

Sang Ying and her companions defeated a Moonless Household corpse patrol on their way to the Yin Mountain Sect. At the sect, Liu Duanyue awaited them and recalled the grudge that made him wish for the Moonless Household’s downfall.

• Sang Ying, Jiang Zhuoxue, and Gu Wangchuan left the inn with captured Moonless Household cultivators and corpse puppets in tow.
• A hooded corpse controller ordered the group to turn back because Moonless City’s nighttime curfew was in effect, but Sang Ying challenged him.
• Sang Ying destroyed the corpse controller’s powerful corpse puppets and continued toward the Yin Mountain Sect with her companions.
• Sect Master Liu and Liu Duanyue prepared guest quarters for the arriving group after hearing that the Moonless Household had tried to assassinate them.
• Liu Duanyue recalled how the Moonless Household’s second young master had led his sister to her death and hoped the household would finally suffer misfortune.

Sang Ying and her companions reached the Yin Mountain Sect with the assassins they had captured, and Sang Ying arranged to make the Moonless Household's head answer for the attack. Wuyue Hao learned that his men had failed, then faced an authoritative middle-aged man who challenged him.

• Sang Ying and her companions arrived at the Yin Mountain Sect, where Liu Duanyue welcomed them and led them to the guest courtyard.
• Sang Ying handed Liu Duanyue the captured assassins and asked him to help bring them before the Moonless Household's head.
• Jiang Zhuoxue followed Sang Ying to her room while Gu Wangchuan went to sleep, and Sang Ying meditated on her sword technique and approaching Nascent Soul Realm.
• A corpse controller reported to Wuyue Hao that Sang Ying had captured his men and destroyed his Golden Core Realm corpse puppets.
• Wuyue Hao berated the corpse controller and despaired over the consequences of his failed assassination attempt.
• A middle-aged man kicked open Wuyue Hao's door and asked what that made Wuyue Hao if his men were useless trash.

The head of the Moonless Household stripped Wuyue Hao of his authority after learning he had offended Sang Ying, then underestimated her response to the attack. The next day, Sang Ying brought witnesses to the city lord’s manor and demanded a public investigation, forcing the household head to face her.

• The head of the Moonless Household removed Wuyue Hao from household affairs and planned for his younger sister’s child to inherit.
• The head learned that Sang Ying and her companions had gone to the Yin Mountain Sect and ordered a subordinate to be offered as a scapegoat if the sect demanded an explanation.
• Sang Ying arrived at the city lord’s manor with corpse puppets and living guest elders, accusing Moonless City of failing to protect visiting cultivators.
• A collateral-branch disciple reported that Sang Ying had invoked the household head’s reputation and warned that mishandling the case could alienate cultivators from other realms.
• The head ordered the manor gates opened and agreed to meet Sang Ying’s demand for an investigation.

Sang Ying brought the corpse puppets and their controllers to the city lord’s manor and demanded that the acting city lord investigate their attack on her group. She left the Wuyue household head facing public pressure to use soul-searching to verify the controllers’ claims.

• Sang Ying asked that cultivators gathered outside be allowed to witness the hearing, and the manor let a group enter.
• Sang Ying and her companions presented the corpse puppets and controllers as evidence of the attack and demanded compensation for the inn’s damage and losses.
• Sang Ying told the Wuyue household head to investigate the matter publicly and give them a satisfactory answer.
• A corpse controller claimed they attacked Sang Ying because they resented her gains from the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm.
• Sang Ying demanded that the Wuyue household head use his soul-searching Cultivation Method to verify the controller’s statement.

Sang Ying pressed the Wuyue household head to use the Soul Search Technique on the captured corpse controllers, refusing to accept a confession that conveniently blamed the attack on a single man. The confrontation ended with Wuyue realizing Sang Ying wanted compensation from his household, and Sang Ying looked ahead to the coming contest between the two households.

• Sang Ying argued that the corpse controllers had intended to kill her and her companions, and urged the acting city lord to search their souls.
• The Wuyue household head reluctantly agreed, but an unfamiliar middle-aged cultivator rushed in, confessed to ordering the attack, and tried to kill himself.
• Sang Ying stopped the man and insisted the acting city lord search the captured corpse controllers despite their confession and the crowd's growing criticism.
• Sang Ying challenged Wuyue to honor his promise to handle the matter impartially, and he realized she was seeking compensation from the Wuyue Household.
• Sang Ying reflected that compensation after the attack became public would be more than hush money and anticipated the contest between the two households.

After the Moonless Household’s failed attempt to cover up the assassination plot, its head punished his eldest son and brought Wuyue Qing into clan affairs, assigning her to oversee the contests against the Yin Mountain Sect. As the three contests approached, Sang Ying and her companions focused on the contest of fortuitous opportunity, and Sang Ying proposed that she and Jiang Zhuoxue enter it together.

• Sang Ying left the city lord’s manor with compensation after the Moonless Household’s head abandoned the soul search, and news of the eldest young master’s assassination plot spread through Moonless City.
• The head of the Moonless Household sent his eldest son to the clan’s forbidden grounds, then allowed Wuyue Qing to take part in household affairs and oversee the upcoming contests.
• Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue exchanged barbs after both sides’ participant lists revealed they had recruited cultivators from another world.
• Sang Ying, Gu Wangchuan, and Jiang Zhuoxue discussed the contests and settled on the contest of fortuitous opportunity because their cultivation or injuries ruled them out of the contest of strength.
• Sang Ying suggested that she and Jiang Zhuoxue take part together in the secret-realm treasure contest.

Sang Ying and her companions joined the Yin Mountain Sect’s competition against the Moonless Household, hoping to help the sect take control of Moonless City. At the arena, Wuyue Qing unveiled a coordinated team of five cultivators from another small world and challenged Liu Duanyue to accept their match.

• Gu Wangchuan offered Sang Ying and her companions’ help to the Yin Mountain Sect, and the sect’s master and his son eagerly accepted.
• Liu Duanyue reminded Sang Ying and her companions that each person could enter only one event and that the Moonless Household had invited a Nascent Soul Realm Rogue Cultivator.
• Sang Ying noticed the arena’s elaborate formations, then spotted Wuyue Qing and the male cultivator who had previously clashed with Gu Wangchuan.
• The Moonless Household head and Sect Master Liu traded barbed remarks from the stands while Wuyue Qing and Liu Duanyue prepared to begin the competition.
• Wuyue Qing brought five coordinated cultivators from another small world onto the arena and challenged Liu Duanyue to accept their match.

The Moonless Household changed the competition rules by sending five cultivators onto the arena, and Sect Master Liu forced it to allow contestants to compete in multiple matches. Sang Ying and Gu Wangchuan prepared to challenge the five, but the Yin Mountain Sect’s first disciples were quickly defeated.

• The Moonless Household head put five cultivators onstage without consulting Sect Master Liu, who objected to the rule change.
• Sect Master Liu demanded that each person be allowed to compete in more than one match, and the Moonless Household head eventually agreed.
• Gu Wangchuan volunteered to fight, but Liu Duanyue warned him against facing all five alone.
• Sang Ying agreed to join Gu Wangchuan and proposed waiting to see what the five could do before choosing their opponents.
• The Yin Mountain Sect’s first five disciples and their corpse puppets faced the five cultivators, who formed an array and knocked them unconscious.

Sang Ying explained how the Moonless Household’s five-person formation worked and proposed ways for the Yin Mountain Sect to counter it. After the opponents challenged the cultivators who had passed the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm trial, Gu Wangchuan was eager to accept.

• The Moonless Household’s team mocked the Yin Mountain Sect and defeated more of its groups, while Liu Duanyue warned Sang Ying not to compete.
• Sang Ying asked Liu Duanyue to find three teammates because Jiang Zhuoxue would not participate, and Liu chose strong cultivators for her group.
• Sang Ying explained that the five opponents linked their spiritual power through a formation and used lightning spirit orbs to defeat their challengers.
• Sang Ying said she could use her Ice Spirit Root to block the formation’s lightning Spiritual Qi, restoring the Yin Mountain Sect’s confidence.
• The Moonless Household’s leader challenged the three cultivators who had passed the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm trial, and Gu Wangchuan wanted to face them.

The five cultivators from the Black Tortoise Realm insulted the Hidden Nether Realm and challenged Sang Ying’s group, angering the spectators and Moonless City’s leaders. After the five activated their formation before the signal, the referee let Sang Ying and her companions attack too, and the fight ended behind spreading white mist.

• The five Black Tortoise Realm cultivators mocked Sang Ying and the Severed Vitality Mystic Realm, angering Liu Duanyue, Sect Master Liu, and the Moonless City crowd.
• Liu Duanyue accepted the challenge on behalf of the Yin Mountain Sect and sent Sang Ying and her companions to face the five.
• Sang Ying traded taunts with the five, while Gu Wangchuan and the other Yin Mountain Sect disciples laughed at them.
• The five activated their formation before the gong, ignoring the referee’s orders to stop.
• The referee authorized Sang Ying’s group to attack, and light covered the arena as the two sides fought.
• Screams sounded from within the light before it vanished and spreading white mist concealed the arena.

Sang Ying and her Yin Mountain Sect companions defeated the Moonless Household’s challengers in the first match, overcoming a coordinated formation and then winning the remaining bouts through teamwork. The rival leaders prepared their disciples for the next two matches, with Wuyue Qing watching Sang Ying intently.

• Sang Ying froze the arena and turned the five Moonless Household outsiders’ lightning formation against them, leaving them unconscious and charred.
• The referee declared Sang Ying’s group the winners of the first match, and her companions celebrated their escape from the formation.
• Sang Ying and the three Yin Mountain Sect disciples won later bouts as the Moonless Household’s unfamiliar fighters struggled to coordinate and sometimes defeated their own teammates.
• The Moonless Household’s final group attacked Sang Ying as her ice melted, but she held them off with her sword and helped secure a crushing victory.
• Sect Master Liu and the Moonless Household head traded taunts, then each ordered their side to defeat the other in the next two matches; Wuyue Qing looked back at Sang Ying with an unusual expression.