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

Three days later, at the Hehuan Sect's main square.

Before dawn, the plaza was already packed with people. The disciples participating in the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm stood in formation in the center of the plaza, each wearing the uniform cyan outfits issued by their sect, with identity tokens and storage bags hanging from their waists.

Li Hanshan stood in the middle of the line, his gaze sweeping across the crowd. He saw Xuan Yinzi standing not far ahead, his silver-gray robes fluttering gently in the morning breeze, his face still possessing a delicate, feminine beauty; Yu Mengjia stood even further forward, wearing a light leather armor over a pale blue dress, a jade pendant hanging from her waist, whispering something to a female disciple of the Sixth Elder beside her. Ye Shuanghua stood in the Nascent Soul group's line, her silver-white outfit also covered by a light armor, her Jinghong Sword hanging at her waist. Her cool gaze met his for a moment as it swept across the crowd, and she gave a barely perceptible nod.

Chen Jie and Zhao Shoudao stood on the other side of the group, talking in hushed tones several disciples away. Their gazes occasionally swept towards Li Hanshan's direction, carrying a restrained scrutiny. Li Hanshan noticed the gaze but didn't turn to look. He simply continued adjusting the buckle on his storage pouch at his waist and tightening the last buckle on his armor.

The teleportation array in front of the plaza was already glowing with a silvery-white light. The array patterns flowed slowly across the stone slabs, like a river being ignited, spreading outwards from the array's core. Outside the teleportation array, disciples from various sects were passing through the array gates to verify their identity tokens and quota slips.

On the high platform, the Ninth Elder stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping over the queue below. His voice, amplified by spiritual energy, clearly echoed throughout the plaza: "All disciples who have obtained a spot, enter the teleportation array in turn. Once inside the secret realm, each person will carry a token. You can only teleport out once every seven days using your token. At other times, you cannot forcibly break the array. The secret realm will last for three months. After three months, regardless of whether you possess any spiritual herbs, the array gate will forcibly teleport everyone out."

His gaze swept across the crowd, lingering for a moment on Li Hanshan, his tone unchanged, "Go, whether it's opportunity or life and death, it's up to your own ability."

The teleportation array grew brighter and brighter, like a slowly rising cocoon of light, enveloping the entire plaza in a silvery-white halo. The procession began to move forward, disciples stepping onto the array's core one after another, their figures blurring and dissipating rapidly in the light.

The moment Li Hanshan stepped onto the teleportation array, he felt a gentle yet powerful pulling force rise from beneath his feet, steadily supporting his body. Light surged in from all directions, filling his vision in a flash with pure silver-white. He heard a faint sound of space tearing, and then everything returned to calm. When he regained his senses of the ground beneath his feet, he was standing in a completely unfamiliar world.

Myriad Spirits Secret Realm

He looked around and found himself standing on a vast grassland. The grass beneath his feet reached his calves, gleaming with a warm, bluish-green sheen. The spiritual energy in the air was so rich it felt almost tangible, and every breath carried a refreshing sweetness. In the distance were rolling hills and sparse woodlands, and further still, the outlines of several majestic mountain ranges were faintly visible, their ridges shimmering with a fine, ethereal light, as if coated with a thin layer of silver powder. The entire landscape was enveloped in a pale golden halo, and the sky took on a warm amber hue.

"This place... is huge," he muttered to himself. His divine sense, at the sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage, spread out in all directions like an invisible net, covering an area of ​​hundreds of miles, yet he still couldn't perceive any boundaries. The area of ​​this Myriad Spirits Secret Realm was far larger than he had imagined, like a secluded little world, full of spiritual energy and vibrant with life, as if it were an ancient scroll that had been carefully preserved for millions of years.

He looked down and sensed his own strength—his cultivation at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage remained stable as before, without any signs of suppression or enhancement. Secret realms suppress the cultivation of Nascent Soul cultivators, but have no effect on them. Furthermore, his Double Yang Embryo had already taken shape, giving him a certain hidden advantage in this unsuppressed world.

The soul banner vibrated slightly at his waist, and Xiao An's voice entered his mind from it: "Senior, the yin energy here is also very abundant. I can feel a large amount of yin essence deposited deep in the earth's veins."

Li Hanshan didn't rush to respond. Instead, he first confirmed that there were no cultivators around before saying, "Xiao An, come out."

Immediately afterwards, a faint blue light swept out from within, landing beside him and transforming into a slender figure. Xiao An's soul body shimmered with a translucent luster under the illumination of the secret realm's spiritual energy, and his pair of eerie green eyes swept around, a hint of suppressed joy in his gaze.

Entering the secret realm, one naturally cannot bring others, but since Xiao An is a soul, Li Hanshan hid her in Chongyang Yuan Tai.

It's important to know that Xiao An's combat strength is quite formidable now; he's a genuine Nascent Soul cultivator and a powerful trump card for Li Hanshan. Li Hanshan said, "You help me sense the location of the Yin energy and spiritual herbs. I'll clear the way. If you encounter danger, hide first and don't act rashly."

Xiao An nodded, her soul floating in mid-air. Her dark green eyes swept around, and she pointed southeast: "Over there, about a hundred miles away, the spiritual energy fluctuations are particularly dense, as if a spiritual vein is emerging."

Without hesitation, Li Hanshan summoned his flying sword and flew low over the grassland. The further southeast he flew, the higher the concentration of spiritual energy in the air became; even the blades of grass beneath his feet began to emit a fine spiritual light, as if sprinkled with a thin layer of luminous powder. Along the way, he saw several spirit herbs of decent quality. Although they weren't the rare treasures he was looking for, he still casually put them into a jade box for later use. Xiao An floated beside him, her soul seemingly merging into the wisps of smoke in the wind.

After flying for about a hundred miles, a range of low hills appeared ahead, with a narrow valley nestled between them. A rich spiritual energy emanated from the center of the valley. Li Hanshan landed at the valley entrance and carefully passed through the vine-covered stone walls. Deep within the valley, he saw a pool of emerald green water. A fine layer of spiritual mist floated on the surface, and several palm-sized silver flowers bloomed on the water's surface. The edges of their petals were adorned with intricate silver patterns, and the medicinal fragrance they emitted invigorated him.

Silver Moon Flower. The most prized item on Ye Shuanghua's list of spiritual herbs, requiring at least three to achieve a 60% success rate in condensing the sword heart. And in this pool before him, three were growing. He crouched down, carefully moving along the edge of the pool, enveloping his fingers in pure yang energy, and gently dipped them into the water, plucking each of the three Silver Moon Flowers and placing them in the jade box. With each flower picked, the fragrance in the jade box intensified. Once all three were in the box, Li Hanshan could feel a horizontal line crossed out from the very first line of Ye Shuanghua's list.

He had just put the jade box into his storage ring and was preparing to leave the valley when his sixth-level Nascent Soul consciousness detected an aura rapidly approaching from afar. The aura's cultivation was around the first level of Nascent Soul, and it was flying straight towards him without deliberately concealing its presence, clearly having noticed the residual spiritual energy fluctuations above the valley.

Li Hanshan's gaze narrowed slightly. Just as he was about to activate his Pure Yang Fire, he sensed two more auras approaching from another direction—Chen Jie and Zhao Shoudao. He lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his figure silently retreated into the shadows on the side of the valley wall. His Pure Yang Qi slowly receded within his body, and he activated his Breath Concealment Technique to its maximum. His entire being was like a rock embedded in a crack in the stone, and even his body temperature dropped to the lowest possible level.

The approaching Nascent Soul cultivator aura abruptly halted above the valley entrance. It was a man with a sinister face, dressed in the distinctive grey-black robes of the Yin Quan Sect, a silver identity token hanging at his waist, his sharp gaze sweeping across the valley floor. He had clearly sensed the lingering spiritual energy fluctuations within the valley and was excitedly preparing to rush in to investigate, when he suddenly noticed something—two even heavier and more substantial auras were rapidly approaching, one of which was clearly more than a level higher than his own. The Yin Quan Sect Nascent Soul cultivator froze, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes. Then, with even greater speed than before, he darted into the dense forest, like a stone blown away by the wind, his aura perfectly concealed.

A few breaths later, Chen Jie landed on the earthen slope above the valley entrance. He was dressed in a gray-brown outfit today, clearly a deliberate attempt to conceal the distinctive style of the Hehuan Sect. Zhao Shoudao followed closely behind, landing beside him. His gray robe fluttered gently in the breeze of the secret realm, his face remaining calm, but the suppressed fighting spirit in his eyes burned like a smoldering fire. Standing on the slope, he scanned the valley floor, his voice neither loud nor soft: "He should be nearby."

Chen Jie nodded, the cyan tracking talisman in his hand glowing faintly. "The talisman indicates the location is in this area." He paused, a cold glint in his eyes. "He can't escape."

The two exchanged a glance and walked towards the valley simultaneously. The gray-black figure in the bushes shrank even more, and the Nascent Soul cultivator from the Yinquan Sect held his breath, remaining as still as a real rock.

Li Hanshan stood in the shadows beside the valley wall, pure Yang energy flowing quietly within his body. The scales of his Hundred-Scale Armor clung to his form, gleaming with a faint, cold luster under the influence of spiritual energy. He raised his hand and gently grasped the broken, jet-black sword, his gaze piercing through the vines and rocks, settling steadily on the two approaching figures.