$re = '/(<\/a>)([^<]+)?(<\/p>)/m';
$str = '<p class="calibre1"><a id="p1"></a>Chapter 370: Slamming straight on</p>
<p class="softbreak"> </p>
<p class="calibre1">Hearing Yan Zhaoge’s suggestion, the Jade Sea City martial practitioners here were all stunned.</p>
<p class="calibre1"><a id="p7"></a>Chapter 372: Yan Zhaoge’s plan</p>
<p class="softbreak"> </p>
<p class="calibre1">Yan Zhaoge and Ah Hu sat on Pan-Pan’s back, black water swirling about Pan-Pan’s entire body, keeping away the seawater as he shot forward at lightning speed.</p>';
$subst = "\1<h2>\2</h2>\3";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php