I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

The aroma of medicine under the thatched hut had not yet dissipated when Li Hanshan sat cross-legged beside the stone pot and swallowed the last spoonful of golden ointment. The warm medicinal power flowed along his meridians into his dantian, nourishing the last few fine cracks on the surface of his divine infant.

This two-week recovery period has brought him back to his peak condition.

The divine infant sat cross-legged in the dantian, its entire body radiating golden light and exuding a calm and profound aura.

The spiritual energy surged continuously within the Pure Yang Meridian, becoming much more abundant than before breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

He looked down at his hands, then at the surging waves on the distant sea, and decided it was time to try the sword again.

Just as he was about to get up, a soft cough came from behind him.

Li Hanshan turned abruptly. In the corner of the thatched hut, the sect leader's tightly closed eyelashes trembled slightly, her long eyelashes fluttering gently like butterfly wings in the dappled sunlight filtering through the gaps in the roof. Her lips moved, emitting a muffled groan, before she slowly opened her eyes.

Those deep eyes were initially somewhat unfocused, as if they had just surfaced from deep water, their gaze unfocused. After a few breaths, the pupils slowly focused, and their gaze settled on Li Hanshan's face.

"...Li Hanshan." Her voice was terribly hoarse. "Where is this place?"

Poseidon Island.

Li Hanshan walked over, knelt down beside her, and reached out to check her pulse. His brows furrowed slightly. "Master, you are seriously injured. There are two different spiritual energies remaining in your meridians. One is your own Yin energy backlash, and the other is from someone else we don't know."

The sect leader's face was as pale as paper. His black veil had been washed away by the sea, leaving his exquisite face exposed to the sunlight without any cover. At this moment, however, he looked weaker than ever before.

Her lips were bloodless, her eyes were slightly sunken, and even her breathing seemed a little difficult.

"It was the Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect." Her voice was low, as if she were conserving her energy. "He ambushed me in the storm."

Li Hanshan's pupils contracted, and he said in a deep voice, "Making a move in the midst of a storm? Isn't he afraid of getting caught in it?"

"Of course he's afraid," the sect leader said, "but the Second Elder was also seriously injured in the storm, and the First Elder..."

She paused, a cold glint in her eyes: "While I was fully focused on resisting the storm, the Grand Elder sealed several of my meridians from behind. Although it was only a momentary delay, the Heavenly Demon Sect Master seized the opportunity. His full-force attack struck my dantian squarely. If I hadn't reacted quickly enough and used my last strength to cast a life-saving concealment spell, I would have been devoured by sea beasts when I fell into the sea."

Li Hanshan remained silent for a moment. The Grand Elder—the one who had ambushed him during his tribulation—had now betrayed the sect leader. That old bastard truly deserved to die.

"Where is he now?" he asked.

The sect leader shook his head: "I don't know. Everyone was scattered in the storm. When I escaped, the Heavenly Demon Sect Master was also swept away by the storm, his fate unknown. The Second Elder... I don't know if he escaped."

She coughed a few times, her breath growing weaker: "The Heavenly Demon Sect Master's palm strike carried a unique, bone-corroding demonic energy that invaded my nascent soul. If it isn't expelled quickly, my cultivation will continue to decline; at most, I'll fall back to the Golden Core stage in three months."

Li Hanshan frowned deeply.

Falling back to the Golden Core stage—for a cultivator like the sect leader who had been stuck at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage for hundreds of years, this was worse than being killed.

"Where is the Heavenly Demon Sect Master?" he asked. "How badly is he injured?"

A cold smile appeared on the sect leader's lips: "Of course he was injured too. His full-force attack in the storm injured me, but my counterattack also made him cough up blood and entangled him in a gust of wind. Even if he manages to escape the storm, his injuries won't be much less severe than mine. He's most likely still recuperating in some corner of the Endless Sea, and he might not return to the Northern Wilderness before me."

Li Hanshan breathed a sigh of relief. At least the Hehuan Sect would be safe for the time being. Both the sect leader and the Tianmo Sect leader were seriously injured, and only the Second Elder, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was left in the Northern Wilderness. However, the Second Elder rarely participated in sect affairs, so even if the two Nascent Soul elders from the Tianmo Sect wanted to take advantage of the situation, they would have to think twice.

As he was pondering these things, the sect leader suddenly opened his eyes. Those deep eyes looked at him, his gaze unusually calm.

"Li Hanshan." Her voice was soft, yet carried an indescribable meaning. "Most of my spiritual power is sealed now, and the cracks on the surface of my nascent soul are deeper than before. If you wish to replenish my essence, now is the best opportunity."

Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat.

He didn't answer immediately, but instead looked quietly at the sect leader. Her expression was calm, as if she were simply stating a fact.

But her fingers tightened slightly at the edge of her robe.

This subtle flaw was detected by Li Hanshan's Nascent Soul level divine sense.

He spoke slowly, "Master, are you testing me?"

The sect leader didn't speak, he just looked at him.

Li Hanshan then asked, "Do you really want me to take advantage of your weakness to replenish your essence, or do you want to see if I will actually do it?"

The sect leader remained silent for a long while, then sighed, "I don't know."

She closed her eyes: "I've been in the Hehuan Sect for hundreds of years, and everyone I've met has been scheming. Whether you call it genuine or feigned, I can't trust anyone. So I'll simply give you the choice—if you choose to take it, I'm powerless to resist now, but I have a backup plan. If you take it, once I recover, I will fight you to the death. If you don't take it… I don't know what to do with you then."

Li Hanshan's mind raced. He didn't know if the sect leader was telling the truth, but at least one thing about her words was true—she had indeed laid her stance bare.

He stood up, walked to the sect leader, squatted down, and looked directly into her eyes.

"Master, from the day you took me as your disciple, you have never truly harmed me. You gave me resources, helped me break through, helped me seize the furnace cauldron, and even gave me the body you had guarded for hundreds of years—you have done so much, if I were to take advantage of your weakness to drain your essence, would I still be a human being?"

The sect leader's eyes flickered slightly.

Li Hanshan reached out and gently placed his hand on her lower abdomen. Pure Yang energy surged from his palm and slowly entered her dantian: "This disciple is helping Master heal. Not for any promise, nor for any benefit. Simply because Master has been kind to this disciple, and this disciple cannot repay kindness with enmity."

The pure yang energy was warm and gentle, like a spring stream, slowly seeping into the sect leader's damaged meridians.

The sect leader could feel that wherever that aura passed, the bone-corroding demonic energy that had been lodged in her meridians was being peeled away and refined little by little. Although the speed was not fast, it was indeed fading away.

She stared at Li Hanshan's face for a long time, a complex emotion flashing in his deep eyes, before finally closing them.

"This isn't working well, you do it."

"it is good."

Without hesitation, Li Hanshan removed her clothes.

then,

It pressed down on top.

The sect leader frowned slightly, then relaxed, a hint of shyness appearing between his brows.

As for Li Hanshan...

He did not let his guard down.

The injury to the Hehuan Sect Master was actually his best opportunity.

But Li Hanshan wasn't sure if she had any other means of counterattack. If he could deepen her yin lines in a gentle way, making them bloom into three petals, that would be the best outcome.

His divine sense quietly probed into the Yangwen space and confirmed the flower that belonged to the sect leader—the flower still stood quietly in the golden mist, its petals tightly closed and not yet blooming.

He separated a wisp of his divine sense and silently probed into the sect leader's body along the connection between the yang and yin lines, sensing her dantian.

There were indeed several deep cracks on the surface of her nascent soul, with bone-corroding demonic energy lurking deep within the cracks, intertwined with her spiritual power.

He was indeed badly injured.

This put Li Hanshan's mind at ease a little; at least it wasn't an act.