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

The air in the valley became as thick as mud the moment Chongyang Yuan Tai rose. A golden halo unfolded above Li Hanshan's head, like a rising sun whose seal had been broken, enveloping the entire valley in a warm yet majestic golden light.

The patterns on the surface of the primordial embryo, repeatedly refined, flowed endlessly in the twilight. Each pattern contained the pure energy that had settled after the fusion of pure yang energy and soul power, like a gemstone polished over millions of years refracting countless tiny prisms of light under the sun.

Zhao Shoudao stood several hundred feet away, his gray-yellow staff held upright in front of him, his primordial spirit's illusory image condensing behind him into a nearly solid gray-yellow mountain. He could feel his primordial spirit power being pushed back by a gentle yet irresistible force—not a brute collision, but a more subtle and higher-level suppression, like a stream encountering a deep pool. No matter how fast he accelerated his impact, that force would steadily hold it up, neutralize it, and push it back.

For the first time, his expression truly changed. His face, which had always been as steady as a rock, now showed a slight bulge in his brow, and the corners of his mouth tightened into a more defined line. "This isn't a primordial spirit," he said, his voice low but carrying a tone of disbelief that even after repeated confirmation, he still couldn't fully comprehend it. "You're only at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, how could you possibly have condensed a primordial spirit?"

"This is not a primordial spirit." Li Hanshan stood beneath the golden halo, his broken sword held horizontally in front of him, pure yang energy surging like a tide within his pure yang meridians. "However, it's enough to deal with you."

He moved. The golden figure left an afterimage in its place, its entire being like a hurled golden spear, crashing straight into Zhao Shoudao's grayish-yellow primordial spirit phantom. The broken sword drew a near-perfect arc in his hand, the ancient patterns on its blade shining blindingly under the infusion of the Chongyang Primordial Embryo's light, carrying a heavy pressure that Zhao Shoudao had never felt from a Nascent Soul cultivator before—it wasn't the pressure of spiritual energy, but rather something deeper, like the sky itself slightly sinking.

Zhao Shoudao reacted with lightning speed. He blocked with his long staff, and grayish-yellow spiritual energy condensed on its surface into a thick spiritual shield. The sound of the broken sword striking the shield was not the crisp clang of metal colliding, but a muffled boom that almost shattered eardrums, like one mountain crashing into another. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the shield from the point of impact, and the entire shield shattered in an instant. The broken fragments of spiritual energy scattered like shattered glass, leaving countless fine grayish-yellow trails in the twilight.

Zhao Shoudao was forced back several steps by the impact. With each step, a huge crater several feet deep appeared in the ground, and a large area of ​​the surrounding rocks shattered.

He gritted his teeth and reactivated his illusory primordial spirit. The grayish-yellow mountain surged forward, attempting to repel Li Hanshan's attack. But Li Hanshan's second sword strike followed immediately. This time, the broken sword descended with a power he had never experienced before—the power of heaven and earth. That power was thin yet pure, like the essence of the sun and moon diluted a million times, seeping into the broken sword's blade from the void, condensing into a faint golden halo at the edge of the blade.

Zhao Shoudao's pupils contracted sharply. He sensed the abnormality contained in that sword strike—it wasn't an attack simply driven by spiritual power; it was something more ancient and primordial. On the third impact, a small crack finally appeared on his staff. The rough lines on the grayish-yellow staff, like scorched paper, curled at the edges, and the surface turned a charred black. He was forced to retreat again, carving two deep furrows beneath his feet, and pebbles rained down behind him.

"Impossible! Even if you are a primordial spirit, you can't be this strong!" Zhao Shoudao roared.

He was at the third level of the Nascent Soul stage, and his primordial spirit was unstoppable. Yet now he was being suppressed by Li Hanshan's freak!

Behind the low hill at the edge of the valley, half of which had been leveled, the Nascent Soul cultivator from the Yinquan Sect had no longer bothered to hide. He poked half his head out from behind the rocks, his gaze fixed on the golden figure in the center of the valley who was continuously suppressing the third-level Nascent Soul cultivator. His mouth was open, and he uttered a few incoherent mutterings, as if talking to himself: "Peak Nascent Soul cultivator... suppressing a third-level Nascent Soul cultivator? What is that golden thing... that can even draw upon the power of heaven and earth? What is his origin...?"

He instinctively shrank back, lowering his body even further, and even his breathing became extremely shallow. As for his divine sense, he dared not probe recklessly. If he used his eyes, others might not be able to detect him, but if he used his divine sense, he would expose himself completely.

Zhao Shoudao steadied himself in mid-air, raising his long staff once more, but this time he didn't rush to attack. He looked down at the cracked staff in his hand, then glanced up at the still-swirling golden aura around Li Hanshan, remaining silent for a moment. Then he spoke slowly, his voice carrying a suppressed, almost sighing tone: "So that's how it is. You had already condensed the nascent soul when you were at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. No wonder you were able to withstand my nascent soul power."

He finally recognized that Li Hanshan's primordial embryo was a nascent soul. However, he did not recognize what kind of primordial embryo Li Hanshan possessed.

He lowered his long staff, but did not retract his illusory primordial spirit. The grayish-yellow mountain behind him solidified slightly, as if gathering some final strength: "However—you should only have one move left. Although the Primordial Embryo is terrifyingly powerful, it cannot be sustained for long when activated at the Nascent Soul stage. Your sword strike just now consumed nearly half of your Primordial Embryo's power, didn't it?"

Li Hanshan didn't answer, but Zhao Shoudao's words accurately struck at his most genuine state of exhaustion. Although the Chongyang Yuan Tai could draw upon a small amount of the power of heaven and earth, each use consumed a large amount of his soul power reserves. His three consecutive powerful attacks had indeed depleted nearly half of his Yuan Tai's power, while Zhao Shoudao, though disheveled, was not yet truly at his limit.

In this brief stalemate, Chen Jie, standing on the outside of the battle circle, finally moved. He had been waiting for this opportunity—waiting for Li Hanshan to focus his attention on Zhao Shoudao, waiting for the first sign of the Chongyang Yuan Tai's light flickering and becoming unstable. With a swift movement of his hands, a slender sword sliced ​​into the battlefield from the side, silently striking Li Hanshan. It was his natal magic weapon, refined through years of seclusion.

Li Hanshan's sixth-level Nascent Soul divine sense detected Chen Jie's movement the instant he activated his technique. He didn't turn around, but instead sharply rotated his Pure Yang Meridian. In that instant, the outermost defensive array of his Hundred Scale Armor automatically activated, and a thin layer of light shone on the dark golden scales. When Chen Jie's natal spirit sword struck the light membrane, it emitted a crisp metallic clang, like sparks flying from two sharp blades colliding at high speed. The tip of the dagger cut into the light membrane about half an inch before stopping, abruptly stopped an inch from Li Hanshan's back by the defensive array of the scales.

Li Hanshan turned around, his broken sword held horizontally in front of him. The light of the Chongyang Yuan Tai stabilized again, and pure Yang energy flowed rapidly through his meridians. His gaze shifted from Zhao Shoudao to Chen Jie's face, a suppressed coldness appearing at the corner of his mouth: "Two against one? Senior Brother Chen, your elders really don't play by the rules."

Chen Jie stopped and stood still, his natal sword twirling between his fingers, its dark golden light gleaming coldly in the twilight. He neither denied nor explained, but simply glanced at Zhao Shoudao and said, "Senior Brother Zhao, let's attack together. His primordial energy is nearly half depleted; he won't last much longer."

Zhao Shoudao remained silent for a moment. He looked at Li Hanshan, then glanced at the dark golden spirit sword in Chen Jie's hand, but ultimately did not object. He raised the cracked staff again, and grayish-yellow spiritual energy surged from his dantian, flowing into the staff and temporarily filling the surface cracks into fine, dark lines. The two men formed a pincer movement, one in front and one behind, sandwiching Li Hanshan in the middle.

Li Hanshan stood still, his pure Yang energy rapidly circulating within his body, readjusting the Hundred Scales Armor, which had been slightly shifted by Chen Jie's attack, back into place. The broken sword twirled half a circle in his palm, its blade shimmering with a deep blue light. Instead of retreating, he took a small half-step forward. The light of the Chongyang Yuan Tai silently spread above his head, and the surrounding energy of heaven and earth slowly converged upon him, like dust stirred by a gentle breeze, forming a thin but continuously flowing golden vortex around him.

"Then let's go."

As soon as the words fell, three figures sprang into action simultaneously. A gray-yellow staff and a dark gold spirit sword attacked from two directions at once. Li Hanshan's figure, like a golden streak of light, precisely weaved through the gap between the two attacks, his broken sword slashing horizontally to deflect Zhao Shoudao's long staff to his side; at the same time, he condensed a thin fire shield behind him with pure Yang fire, deflecting Chen Jie's spirit sword by half an inch. In the instant the three crossed paths and separated, a shockwave even more dazzling than before exploded in the center of the valley, blasting craters several meters deep into the ground, sending rubble flying in all directions like ignited arrows.

The ground looked as if it had been bombarded by countless artillery shells, leaving behind craters everywhere.

The Yinquan Sect's Nascent Soul cultivators had retreated a hundred miles away, their eyes fixed on the fighting figures amidst the dust-filled air.

In the valley, the battle continued. Golden light, gray-yellow staff shadows, and dark gold daggers intertwined in the twilight, forming a dense web of light that sliced ​​the entire valley into countless fragments of light and shadow. Li Hanshan, fighting two opponents alone, was struggling, but he never showed any signs of weakness. The light of his Chongyang Yuan Tai was visibly condensing and solidifying at a rapid pace during the ongoing battle.