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

Zhao Shoudao fled for thousands of miles until he was sure there was no longer any pursuit behind him, and then he landed in a mountain hollow hidden by dense forest.

He leaned against an ancient tree trunk, panting for a while. The wound on his back, torn open by the silver corpse's claws, still throbbed with pain. His spiritual energy churned and clashed erratically in his meridians for some time before finally settling down. He took out several healing pills and swallowed them, then sat cross-legged and meditated for a full day and night before he had barely recovered most of his strength.

The next morning, he got up again and flew towards the contact mark left in the secret realm, the one he had agreed upon with the Nascent Soul disciples of the Joyful Union Sect. The mark was left by the elders before they set off, for the purpose of finding each other if they got separated in the secret realm, and its location was known only to the core disciples of the elders' lineage.

He flew for about half a day before finally sensing a familiar presence in a valley shrouded in a pale golden spiritual mist. The stone walls on both sides of the valley were covered with spiritual moss and vines, and the stream at the bottom was crystal clear, with several palm-sized spiritual lotus leaves floating on the surface, exuding a refreshing herbal scent. Several figures were sitting on the shallow beach in the center of the valley.

The leader was a tall, square-faced man dressed in a tight-fitting iron-gray outfit, with a blue jade pendant engraved with the character "Yan" hanging from his waist. He sat cross-legged on a blue stone half-submerged in water, holding in his palm a crimson spiritual fruit with fine golden patterns flowing across its surface—the Vermilion Fruit, a rare find that appears only once every hundred years—the second most prized item on the list of spiritual herbs. Beside him stood another male cultivator, slightly shorter and thinner, dressed in a dark green robe, also with a jade pendant engraved with his surname hanging from his waist, who was looking down at an unfolded animal hide map.

Yu Mengjia sat on a relatively dry rock at the edge of the valley, wearing a light blue dress over a simple leather armor. The emerald green jade pendant at her waist gleamed warmly in the spiritual mist. When she saw Zhao Shoudao descend from the valley entrance, her brows twitched almost imperceptibly before returning to calm, but her gaze clearly held a hint of scrutiny and curiosity.

Yan Qingsong put away the vermilion fruit, stood up, and his brows furrowed sharply when his gaze fell on Zhao Shoudao. He sensed the incomplete recovery and weakness in Zhao Shoudao's aura—clearly, he had been through a fierce battle, and one in which he had suffered heavy losses. His voice carried a deep, oppressive quality: "Junior Brother Zhao, what happened to you? Your aura is so weak, who inflicted these injuries?"

Zhao Shoudao stopped in the middle of the valley and remained silent for several breaths before speaking. His voice was drier than usual, carrying a sense of helplessness that had been repeatedly worn down: "Chen Jie is dead."

The air in the valley fell silent for a moment. The slender male cultivator who had been examining the map—Huo Yuan—suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief: "Chen Jie is dead? Who killed him? Anyone capable of killing Chen Jie in this secret realm must be at least a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, right? You were with him; couldn't you have saved him?"

"He can't be saved." Zhao Shoudao shook his head. "It was Li Hanshan who killed him."

Upon hearing this, the air in the valley seemed to freeze. Yan Qingsong's fingers, gripping the vermilion fruit, tightened slightly for a moment. Huo Yuan's map-reading motion froze in mid-air, and even Yu Mengjia's gaze flickered clearly for a instant. Although she had cooperated with Li Hanshan during the flag-seizing in the secret realm, upon hearing the news that "Li Hanshan killed Chen Jie," she couldn't help but ask, "Li Hanshan? That Nascent Soul peak Northern Wilderness disciple? How could he possibly kill Chen Jie? Chen Jie, at the very least, was at the first level of the Divine Transformation stage. Even if he, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was incredibly skilled, he couldn't possibly kill someone of a higher level."

Zhao Shoudao shook his head, his tone carrying a lingering doubt that remained even after repeated confirmation: "He has a primordial spirit. Or rather, a rudimentary form extremely similar to a primordial spirit. That thing can draw upon the power of heaven and earth within a small area, its power far exceeding ordinary Nascent Soul techniques. Moreover..." He paused, "He also has a Nascent Soul-level Yin spirit beside him, and a female cultivator from the Yin Spring Sect. They are both on his side."

Yan Qingsong, Huo Yuan, and Yu Mengjia exchanged glances, and a brief silence fell over the valley. After a moment, Yan Qingsong spoke first, his voice several decibels deeper than before, as if he had come to this conclusion after repeatedly considering the news in his mind: "A female cultivator from the Yinquan Sect? A Yin Soul at the Nascent Soul level? A disciple at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, with such a talisman by his side... just where does he come from?"

Huo Yuan picked up the conversation, his tone carrying a suppressed contemplation: "Even with these helpers, the nature of this matter has changed. His killing of Chen Jie means he is no longer just a promising new disciple to be wary of, but an enemy who already poses a substantial threat. If we keep him alive and wait for him to grow stronger, the power of the sect leader's lineage will be completely unbalanced."

Yan Qingsong remained silent, but he had already put the vermilion fruit in his palm back into his storage bag. His left hand clenched slightly before relaxing. He looked at Zhao Shoudao, seemingly weighing something, and finally spoke slowly, "Which direction did he go? Can we still track his presence?"

Zhao Shoudao shook his head: "I used a boundary-breaking talisman before I left. Although the talisman helped me escape, it also disrupted the traces of spiritual energy around me, making it somewhat difficult to track him down again."

"We can't just let it go like this. He killed Chen Jie, which is tantamount to slapping the Elders' Council in the face." Huo Yuan closed the map, stood up, and said, "Senior Brother Yan, shall we go after him now?"

The wind rustled across the water in the valley, causing a few spirit lotus leaves to sway slightly. Just then, a deep and resonant voice came from the stone wall shrouded in spiritual mist deep within the valley: "The ruins of the Yao Guang Sect are about to emerge." All eyes turned to the direction of that stone wall at the same time.

Yan Qingsong was the first to react, a glint of light flashing in his eyes: "How much longer?"

The voice from within the stone wall paused for a moment, as if sensing something: "About twenty days. The restrictions surrounding the ruins have recently begun to show regular flickering fluctuations. Based on past experience, when the cycle of those fluctuations shortens to within twelve hours, that's when the entrance is at its weakest." He paused, "The Grand Elder personally investigated the perimeter of the ruins and said that those restrictions are top-tier seals left from ancient times, so powerful that even Dao Integration cultivators dare not force their way in. However, there's a chance that gaps will appear in the spirit herb garden and trial grounds surrounding the ruins when the restrictions are weakest, allowing people to explore for a period of time."

Yan Qingsong withdrew his gaze from the stone wall, sweeping it over Huo Yuan, Yu Mengjia, and Zhao Shoudao, as if weighing something. After a moment, he spoke, his voice carrying a worn-out seriousness: "The value of the Yaoguang Sect ruins far exceeds that of a Nascent Soul peak disciple. If we can find one or two ancient spiritual plants in the outer spirit herb garden, it would be more useful than killing ten Li Hanshans. Moreover, there might be fragments of cultivation techniques left in the trial grounds outside the ruins. That level of inheritance would be enough for a Nascent Soul cultivator to directly advance to the Void Refinement stage in the Hehuan Sect." He paused, his gaze becoming more resolute. "No rush. The ruins are about to be revealed. It's not too late to settle accounts with that old man after we've explored the ruins."

Huo Yuan opened his mouth as if to say something, but seeing that Yan Qingsong had already turned around and reopened the map, he swallowed back the words he was about to say. He sat down again, but his gaze remained somewhat unwillingly fixed on a circled area on the edge of the map.

Yu Mengjia sat silently on the rock, her watery eyes gleaming thoughtfully in the mist. Her fingertips unconsciously traced the edge of the emerald jade pendant at her waist, her gaze lingering on the entrance to the valley for a long while before finally returning to her own.

Zhao Shoudao leaned against the rock wall at the edge of the valley, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing. The tear in his gray robe, ripped by the silver corpse's claws, was slowly healing under the nourishment of spiritual energy. His brows were slightly furrowed, as if he were processing all the information that had been concealed from their previous conversation. Behind the stone wall deep within the valley, the deep voice ceased to resonate; only the spiritual mist churned quietly in the twilight, like the unchanging breath of this ancient world.