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

Li Hanshan felt his consciousness being enveloped by a layer of cold, thick darkness. This darkness, like molten iron poured into deep water, surged in from all directions, compressing all his senses into an extremely small area. He could still vaguely perceive the light, the sound of the wind, and the cool touch of the bluestone ground beneath his feet, but no matter what he did, he couldn't move his body. His fingers, his legs, his attempts to open his mouth and say something—all were gripped tightly by that cold darkness, like a prisoner with his hands and feet bound by chains, even struggles seemed futile.

"Senior!" Xiao An's voice came from the edge of her sea of ​​consciousness, filled with barely suppressed anxiety. She could feel that Li Hanshan's aura had become extremely unfamiliar in that instant, like a lantern whose wick had been replaced. Although the shape remained the same, the flame inside had been replaced.

She lunged towards the depths of his consciousness, her soul power transforming into countless fine, hair-like, dark blue threads attempting to penetrate, only to be repelled by an invisible barrier. The texture of that barrier was unlike any restriction she had ever seen; it was cold and slippery, like an iron wall coated with grease, and her soul power was slid away the moment it touched it.

Li Hanshan could hear Xiao An's voice, but he couldn't respond. The darkness was eroding his core consciousness at an alarming rate, like a swarm of activated ants gnawing at the surface of his soul. He remembered the wound on Lu Zhantian's chest, eroded by black lines, from the fragments, and the details of those lines spreading deeper and deeper as if they were alive. This lingering spirit, after entering his body, was clearly trying to transform him into another vessel—an empty shell possessed by inner demons, a demon gone mad.

The Pure Yang Primordial Spirit trembled violently deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, like a bronze bell repeatedly struck, each tremor pushing back a layer of black erosion by half a step. But there were too many fragments of darkness, like shards of pottery that had been crushed and then reassembled, seeping in relentlessly from every corner of his soul. While the tremors of the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit could temporarily repel some, they could not stop the continuous influx of more fragments. He could feel his consciousness becoming increasingly blurred, the darkness like a rising tide, inch by inch overflowing the boundaries of his perception.

"Pure Yang Fire..." he murmured to himself. Pure Yang energy was the only power he could barely mobilize, and the only means that could directly restrain the extraterrestrial demons. But at this moment, his body was like a statue cast in molten iron, unable to move even a finger, let alone guide the Pure Yang energy to circulate normally. The spiritual power within his body seemed to have all its channels cut off by that layer of darkness; his once unobstructed meridians were now like pipes filled with ice water, all passages completely blocked.

The darkness was rapidly encroaching, like a swarm of activated ants, relentlessly advancing towards the core of his consciousness.

Li Hanshan closed his eyes. He abandoned the practice of mobilizing the spiritual energy in his meridians, instead focusing all his attention on the pure Yang primordial spirit deep within his dantian, which was being enveloped by layers of black mist. The golden light on the surface of the primordial spirit had been compressed into a fist-sized sphere of light. The darkness seeping in was like oil in water; although it couldn't completely penetrate the sphere, it was continuously consuming its energy reserves. He felt the defense thinning, and he knew he couldn't hold on much longer.

Then he made a decision. Instead of trying to repel the dark fragments, he lured them into the core of the pure Yang primordial spirit—like opening the city gates to let the enemy pour in, and then igniting the entire city from within. He deliberately removed the defensive barriers on the surface of the primordial spirit, and the black mist fragments that were swirling around the perimeter surged into the golden core like fish smelling blood. The instant all the fragments entered—he ignited the pure Yang fire from within.

The flames didn't flow from his meridians; they exploded directly from the core of his primordial spirit. The purplish-gold light, like ignited kindling, simultaneously ignited his entire being, inside and out. He could feel his soul, meridians, and flesh being burned through, penetrated, and reshaped in that instant by the intensely hot flames. The pain surpassed any battle he had ever experienced before, as if an entire volcano had been crammed into his chest cavity, every inch of his flesh churning, charred, peeled away, and regenerated in the inferno. His robes instantly turned to ash in the flames, even the ashes evaporating completely, revealing the skin beneath, scorched red by the pure yang fire.

The dark fragments that were eroding his consciousness erupted in unprecedented ferocity the moment they ignited within the Pure Yang Fire. Like ice cubes thrown into boiling oil, they hissed and crackled at the core of the fire, then disintegrated, shattered, and evaporated layer by layer, turning into finer plumes of black smoke that were consumed by the flames. In that scorching sea of ​​fire, Li Hanshan could clearly perceive the demise of each dark fragment, as if he were hearing chains shatter piece by piece; his consciousness was rapidly resurfacing.

Half an hour later, the pure Yang fire slowly died down. Li Hanshan squatted on the ground, panting heavily. The scorched skin on his body was healing at a visible speed, the new skin glowing with a warm luster in the air. He had exhausted most of his spiritual power, and the golden light of the pure Yang primordial spirit in his sea of ​​consciousness had dimmed considerably, but his consciousness had completely returned to clarity. He exhaled a breath of turbid air, which contained fine, grayish-black residue that fell to the ground with a slight hissing sound, corroding several small pits into the bluestone floor.

"Senior!" Xiao An's voice rang in his mind, filled with lingering fear after surviving the ordeal, "Are you...are you alright?"

Li Hanshan shook his head, pushed himself up to stand, and stretched his limbs, which were slightly stiff from the flames. He glanced down at his naked body—his robes were completely burned, but his storage ring was still there. He took out a spare robe from the storage ring, put it on, tied the belt, and turned to Xiao An, his voice hoarse with the scare of someone who had survived a close call: "I'm alright. But it was very dangerous."

Xiao An's soul reformed beside him, its eerie green eyes filled with worry and inquiry: "What just happened? I tried to rush in, but the edge of your sea of ​​consciousness was sealed by a black barrier, and my soul power couldn't penetrate it at all."

Li Hanshan sat cross-legged on the spot, slowly circulating his pure Yang energy through his meridians for a full cycle. After confirming that no remaining fragments of darkness remained in his body, he explained, "Those extraterrestrial demons have one last trick up their sleeve after they're killed. They don't truly perish; instead, they seek out any vessel they can attach themselves to, even a wisp of broken consciousness, to burrow into a living person's body, becoming something akin to a demon within themselves, tempting cultivators to go mad and destroy their foundations. The reason Lu Zhantian chose to self-destruct was because he had already been invaded by that thing. If he hadn't self-destructed, his body would have been possessed by the demon, becoming an even more powerful vessel."

Xiao An's soul trembled slightly: "So, that wisp of remnant spirit just now entered your body, senior?"

"Hmm." Li Hanshan nodded. "It lurked at the edge of my sea of ​​consciousness for a while, and while we were looking at those fragments, it bypassed my senses and rushed into the core of my primordial spirit. Fortunately, I reacted quickly enough and ignited the inside of my primordial spirit with pure Yang fire before it completely took over. This move was equivalent to burning myself from head to toe. Although those remnants of the extraterrestrial demons were completely incinerated, I myself was seriously injured. In my current state, it will take at least several days to recover."

Xiao An was silent for a moment: "When those lingering resentments were burned, did they resist?"

"The resistance was extremely fierce." Li Hanshan's gaze darkened slightly, as if recalling the silent war that had just unfolded within his body. "While they were being consumed by the flames, they were also trying to erode the edges of my primordial spirit. Several times I felt my consciousness was about to be crushed. If it weren't for the pure Yang fire's strong restraining effect on them, I probably wouldn't have survived. Lu Zhantian probably chose to self-destruct back then because he didn't have pure Yang fire to cleanse the demonic invasion within him, and also because he didn't have enough time; the demons wouldn't give him that chance."

At this point, Li Hanshan couldn't help but feel a sense of fear.

Lu Zhantian self-destructed.

In even more distant times, could there have been Mahayana cultivators whose bodies were successfully possessed by extraterrestrial demons?

This is a more terrifying method than possession, not only terrifying but also more sophisticated, and even Mahayana cultivators cannot defend against it.

Fortunately, he had the powerful weapon of Pure Yang Fire. Although it was a mutually destructive method, it ultimately allowed him to successfully counterattack and kill the extraterrestrial demon.

"There was an unexpected bonus."

The counterattack against the extraterrestrial demons also brought Li Hanshan unexpected gains.

That is... the Way of Space!

The spatial manipulation techniques that the extraterrestrial demons excelled at, unexpectedly allowed Li Hanshan to gain some insights into after this guy was completely burned by Li Hanshan.

Although these insights are few, if Li Hanshan continues his research, he is confident that he can master their methods.

He stood up and stretched his limbs; the newly formed skin gleamed with a warm glow in the air. He could feel his pure Yang primordial spirit slowly recovering; although the process was slow, at least no irreversible damage had been left behind.

"Xiao An, go and see if there are any other lingering regrets."

"Um!"

After confirming that he was truly unharmed, Xiao An's tense soul relaxed slightly. Then, she transformed into a streak of dark blue light and swept towards the edge of the burial mound, beginning to carefully search for any remaining fragments.

"I will find you," Li Hanshan whispered to himself. "No matter where you are, no matter what you've been through, I will find you."