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

The soundproof barrier in the valley depression swirled gently in the golden light, isolating the outside world from the sounds of wind and rolling gravel. Li Hanshan leaned against the stone wall, his pure yang energy flowing slowly through his meridians. Yin Lingyue straddled him, her dark purple eyes holding a hint of suppressed anger, her hair falling messily over her shoulders.

Li Hanshan's spiritual energy in his pure Yang meridians had recovered to about 70-80%, and the divine infant in his dantian once again emitted a stable golden light. He glanced at Yin Lingyue and found that her gaze was unfocused, still savoring the afterglow of what had just happened.

Therefore, Li Hanshan decided to accompany her for a while longer.

Several hours later, the commotion finally subsided. Yin Lingyue finally came to her senses. This time, Li Hanshan had really worn her out. She glared at Li Hanshan resentfully before putting on her clothes.

"You killed Chen Jie, and I'm afraid the elders of the Hehuan Sect won't let this go easily!" Yin Lingyue said.

"When Chen Jie killed me, he never expected me to let it go so easily." Li Hanshan dusted off the dirt on his robes and stood up. "Besides, the rule in the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm is that everyone accepts their fate. Since he dared to make a move, he should be prepared to be killed in return. Even if Zhao Shoudao goes back to report, the Elders' Council can't do anything to me on the surface."

"not to mention!"

"When I leave, I will no longer be a Nascent Soul cultivator." Li Hanshan turned to look at her, his gaze calm yet resolute. "I will break through to the Divine Transformation realm within the secret realm."

Yin Lingyue froze. She stared at him for several moments, as if trying to determine if he was joking, but she quickly read the seriousness in his eyes. Her voice carried a hint of barely suppressed surprise: "Are you crazy? The threshold of Nascent Soul isn't something you can cross so easily. Even if you have a Nascent Soul, the accumulation and impact of breaking through can't be compensated for by a few battles. If you break through to Nascent Soul in a secret realm and people from other sects sense the commotion, wouldn't you be exposing yourself to everyone?"

Yin Lingyue's lips moved, as if she wanted to retort, but she found that every word he said precisely blocked all her escape routes. She remained silent for a long while, finally turning her head away, her voice carrying a helpless tone that had been smoothed out: "Since you've said that, how can I refuse?"

"No." Li Hanshan smiled, stood up, and extended his hand to her. "Let's go find the medicinal herbs first."

Yin Lingyue slapped his hand away, stood up, straightened her robes, and reapplied the disguise of a withered old woman to her face. As the two emerged from the depression, Xiao An had already floated down from the rocky peak, the pale blue light on her soul's surface as calm as still water. She glanced at Yin Lingyue's disguised face, asked no further questions, and simply nodded to Li Hanshan: "Senior, there are no other cultivators within a hundred miles. We can continue."

Li Hanshan summoned his flying sword and headed northeast. The world of the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm unfolded beneath their feet, with rolling hills and sparse woodlands interspersed throughout. The concentration of spiritual energy in the air did not decrease but increased in the night, like aged wine fermented by moonlight, each breath carrying a refreshing sweetness.

The area here is indeed vast, giving a boundless feeling, stretching for countless miles.

In the days that followed, the trio of two people and one soul traversed the secret realm. Li Hanshan, relying on his sixth-level Nascent Soul stage divine sense, avoided the territories of overly powerful demonic beasts, targeting areas with abundant spiritual energy but relatively weak defenses. Yin Lingyue, on the other hand, used chains and silver corpses to distract the demonic beasts during the attacks, while Xiao An used the Ghost Soldier Tide to clear out the guardians of low-level spiritual herbs. The three worked together seamlessly, achieving extremely high harvesting efficiency.

On the third day, they found three dark red fruit vines by a stream, their fruit plump and fragrant. On the fifth day, they found a small patch of Mind-Concentrating Grass in a crevice of a cliff covered with vines; although not very old, it was plentiful. On the seventh day, they encountered a small team of three late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators—judging from their attire, they were disciples of a third-rate demonic sect called the Netherworld Pavilion—besieging a demonic beast at the early-stage Nascent Soul stage. The beast was already half-dead and about to be captured when Li Hanshan and Yin Lingyue silently flanked it and finished it off.

"You—!" Before the leading Netherworld Pavilion disciple could finish speaking, Yin Lingyue's chains bound his dantian, sealing his spiritual power and rendering him immobile. The other two tried to escape, but were completely surrounded by Xiao An's horde of Nether Soldiers, their retreat blocked. The entire process took less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea; all three's storage bags were taken, and their corpses were dragged away by Yin Lingyue to be refined into semi-finished Corpse Demon materials.

Li Hanshan crouched down and rummaged through the three people's storage bags, finding quite a few spirit stones, several bottles of decent-quality pills, and a few low-grade spiritual herbs. He put everything useful into his own storage bag, and when he stood up, he saw Yin Lingyue crouching not far away dealing with the last corpse. She looked up at him and said, "You're getting more and more used to this kind of thing."

"In this place, if you don't kill others, they'll kill you," Li Hanshan said, dusting off his hands. "Besides, what they have is indeed useful."

Yin Lingyue remained silent. After disposing of the corpse, she collected the materials and stood up. The three continued forward, meticulously checking each medicinal herb on the list given by Ye Shuanghua, collecting sufficient quantities of every type they encountered. Occasionally, when they encountered lone disciples from minor sects, Li Hanshan would have Yin Lingyue rob them, but usually only their storage bags were taken before they were released without harming them. The robbed disciples often didn't even get a clear look at his face, only catching a glimpse of a hunched old woman and a fleeting, dark blue figure before they were nearly stripped naked.

Half a month later, Li Hanshan's reserves of spiritual herbs had become extremely abundant, and the jade box in his storage ring was nearly half full. Yin Lingyue had also acquired a considerable number of Yin Sha spiritual items, which further improved the grade of her silver corpse. Although Xiao An's tide of ghost soldiers had not increased significantly, through repeated tempering in actual combat with demonic beasts, the souls of those ghost soldiers had become more solidified and their movements more agile than before.

After a battle, Li Hanshan sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing. His pure Yang energy circulated through his pure Yang meridians for several major cycles, and he could feel that the threshold to the Nascent Soul stage in his dantian had loosened somewhat compared to when he first entered the secret realm. The accumulation of Xuan Yin True Breath and the tempering effect of continuous combat were slowly and steadily shortening the distance between him and that threshold. When he opened his eyes, he saw Yin Lingyue standing not far away, watching him. Beneath the withered facade at the corner of her mouth, her dark purple eyes held a complex expression that even she herself might not have noticed.

"How much longer?" she asked.

"It'll be soon." Li Hanshan stood up, sensing the state of the divine infant in his dantian. "At this rate, I should be able to attempt a breakthrough in another month."

Yin Lingyue said nothing more, simply turning back to continue exploring. Her silhouette cast a long, thin shadow in the warm light of the secret realm, her steps still carrying that suppressed stubbornness. Li Hanshan glanced at her gait, a faint smile appearing on his lips, but he didn't call out to her. Xiao An floated down from the rocky peak, landing beside Li Hanshan, her eerie green eyes gazing in the direction Yin Lingyue had gone, and whispered, "Senior, she's been getting increasingly adept at cooperating lately."

"Hmm." Li Hanshan withdrew his gaze. "She knows in her heart that it's better for her to follow me than to go against me."

The two people and one soul continued to advance deeper into the secret realm, collecting all the spiritual herbs and demonic beasts along the way, like a smoothly operating harvesting machine, steadily moving forward in the alternation of twilight and dawn in the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm.