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

Outside the secret realm, the murmurs in the square rose and fell like waves of wheat rippling in the wind.

"Senior Brother Li is being suppressed! With Xuan Yinzi and Yu Mengjia attacking at the same time, he simply can't handle it!"

"Four flags... If two are taken away, he'll only have two left."

"Senior Sister Yu's wind barrier is too powerful. Senior Brother Li tried to break through several times but was forced back."

"What exactly is the source of Senior Brother Xuan Yinzi's silver-gray sword light? Why is it getting faster and faster as the fight goes on?"

Chen Jie stood to the side of the platform, a slight smile finally returning to his stiff lips. He crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on the azure figure reflected in the bronze mirror, caught in a pincer attack. His voice carried a suppressed certainty: "See? No matter how skilled he is, he can't withstand two attacks simultaneously. Xuan Yinzi is holding him off from the front, while Yu Mengjia is flanking him from the side. Under this two-pronged attack, he won't last long."

Chang Sheng stood behind him, nodding repeatedly: "Senior Brother Chen is right! Senior Brother Xuan Yinzi's sword formation and Senior Sister Yu's wind barrier worked together flawlessly; that old man didn't even have a chance to fight back!"

Within the secret realm, Li Hanshan was indeed being suppressed. Xuan Yinzi's silver-gray sword light was like a persistent, venomous wound, each attack precisely blocking his impending arrival. Yu Mengjia's wind barrier, meanwhile, subtly contracted whenever he focused his attention on Xuan Yinzi, like a tightening rope, increasingly restricting his movement.

Xuan Yinzi finally widened the distance. He clasped his hands together, and the silver-gray light around him suddenly surged, transforming into a silver pillar of light that shot into the sky, enveloping his entire body. The silver-gray longsword slowly spun before him, dense silver patterns appearing on its blade, like a lit lamp wick, radiating a sharpness more intense than ever before. That was his natal spirit sword, a powerful strike compressed from his entire peak Nascent Soul cultivation, capable of piercing through the defenses of a Deity Transformation cultivator. He spoke a sentence, as if explaining, yet also as saying goodbye: "Junior Brother Li, I actually really hoped to have a proper one-on-one fight with you. But this fight concerns a spot in the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm, and it cannot be lost."

A silver-gray sword light pierced through the air, heading straight for Li Hanshan's face.

Li Hanshan did not retreat. He met the silver-gray sword light head-on, his pure Yang energy condensing into a thick fire shield before him. The purplish-gold flames collided violently with the silver-gray sword light in the center of the arena, exploding into a blinding light. Even the golden array patterns at the edge of the arena trembled violently under the impact. Taking advantage of the moment when Li Hanshan was fully focused on blocking the sword light, Xuan Yinzi suddenly turned his head and shouted in Yu Mengjia's direction, "Junior Sister Yu! Attack! His spiritual power is all focused on defense right now!"

Yu Mengjia didn't answer, but she had already moved. The azure wind curtain suddenly expanded several times over as her spiritual power surged, sweeping towards Li Hanshan like an invisible giant wave. But she didn't rush towards Li Hanshan. Just before the azure wind curtain touched the edge of Li Hanshan's fire shield, it abruptly changed direction—as if twisted by an invisible hand—and, carrying a powerful impact, hurtled towards the two spirit flags that Xuan Yinzi had planted on the arena's stone pillars.

Xuan Yinzi's pupils constricted sharply. "Yu Mengjia!" His voice, for the first time, lost its composure, carrying a barely suppressed yet still betraying shock and anger. "What are you doing?!"

Yu Mengjia had already landed at the edge of his arena. The two spirit flags were snatched from her palm. Holding them, she turned to look at Xuan Yinzi. In the twilight, her face remained gentle, her voice neither loud nor soft, yet clearly piercing through the clashing wind and sword energy: "What for? To take your flags, of course." She tucked the two flags into her sleeve, her watery eyes holding a refined seriousness. "You always have to pick on the weak, don't you?"

Xuan Yinzi's face turned ashen in an instant. He abruptly retracted his natal spirit sword, the silver-gray sword light drawing a sharp arc in the air as it slashed towards Yu Mengjia's location. But Yu Mengjia was prepared; the layer of azure wind curtain rapidly spun and contracted around her, condensing into a thick wall of energy in front of her, firmly blocking the silver-gray longsword in mid-air. The moment the sword light collided with the wind curtain, a visible shockwave exploded, scattering rubble from the edge of the arena, sending countless tiny streaks of light flashing through the twilight.

"You!" Xuan Yinzi stared at Yu Mengjia, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. Just now, in order to suppress Li Hanshan with all his might, he had poured most of his spiritual power and the source power of the two spirit flags into his natal spirit sword, reducing the defense of his two spirit flags on the arena to a minimum. Yu Mengjia, however, seized that opportunity—the one he thought was in his grasp, but which was precisely the opportunity she had long planned.

Outside the secret realm, the plaza erupted into chaos, like a pot of boiling water tossed with scalding oil. "Yu Mengjia stole Xuan Yinzi's flag!" "She was faking it all along! She never intended to truly join forces against Senior Brother Li from the beginning!" "From two sides to four! She's now just as powerful as Senior Brother Li!" "Xuan Yinzi has lost both sides! Isn't she trying to kill Xuan Yinzi?"

Chen Jie's smile froze completely. He turned his head sharply to look at the platform, his voice filled with barely suppressed urgency: "What is Yu Mengjia doing?!" He subconsciously looked at the Ninth Elder, only to find that the Ninth Elder's face was ashen, and his gaze was like two sharp swords piercing the direction where the Sixth Elder was.

The Ninth Elder spoke, his voice low but carrying a chilling aura: "Sixth Elder, what is your disciple doing?"

The Sixth Elder sat on the other side of the platform. He was a thin-faced old man dressed in a simple gray robe, his posture casual. When he heard the Ninth Elder's question, he didn't even raise his eyelids, his tone indifferent: "What she does is none of my business." He paused, then added, "She can fight however she wants. I never interfere with the choices of my disciples."

The Ninth Elder's gaze darkened further, but he remained silent.

Chen Jie stood at the edge of the high platform, looking at the blue figure in the bronze mirror that was rapidly moving away from Xuan Yinzi's arena. He then glanced at the four spirit flags still planted on Li Hanshan's arena. His lips were pursed into a line, and his face was full of anger.

Inside the secret realm, Xuan Yinzi ceased his pursuit of Yu Mengjia. He abruptly sheathed his natal spirit sword, his silver-gray figure tracing a sharp arc in the air as he sped off in the direction Yu Mengjia had gone. His voice was torn apart by the wind, but the suppressed rage pierced the twilight like a tangible force: "Yu Mengjia! You'd better give me an explanation!" Behind him, on Li Hanshan's arena, the four spirit flags remained quietly planted on the stone pillars.