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

Night had fallen. The women had already returned to their rooms to rest, leaving only a single candle burning quietly on the low table in the stone hall, casting flickering light on the repeatedly trodden shoe prints on the bluestone floor. Li Hanshan sat at the table for a moment, circulating his pure yang energy through his meridians in a small cycle to confirm that his state was optimal. Then he rose and returned to his stone chamber, sitting cross-legged on the stone couch.

He didn't have to wait long. About half an hour after he entered meditation, that familiar pull arrived as promised, gentle yet firm, like a thread bathed in moonlight, slowly emerging from the depths of his consciousness, leading his soul in a certain direction. He relaxed all resistance, letting that force carry him through layers of darkness, and then—

The sound of flowing water reached my ears.

Moonlight spilled across the river, bathing it in a silvery glow. The blue stones on the bank remained as smooth and warm as ever, while a thin layer of mist shrouded the distant horizon, like a watercolor painting repeatedly blurred and diluted. When Li Hanshan opened his eyes, he found himself standing on that familiar riverbank, warm grass beneath his feet, and a night breeze blowing from the water's direction, carrying the scent of grass and damp earth.

Luo Li sat on the bluestone, dressed in snow-white robes, her bare feet dangling lightly. Moonlight cast a long, slender shadow behind her, shattering into flowing silver light on the water's surface. She turned to look at him, a smile blooming on her face. She patted the spot beside her, her voice softer than usual: "Sir, come and sit down."

Li Hanshan sat down beside her. Today's dream was more solid than usual; the golden film swirled incessantly at the edges of his vision, like a repeatedly reinforced dam. Luo Li's aura was also deeper than when they last met, as if she had made progress in reality during this time. "Your divine sense has already touched that barrier," Luo Li said, her gaze falling on his face, her clear eyes gleaming warmly in the moonlight. "I can feel that the barrier in your sea of ​​consciousness is now only a thin thread remaining. This time, I'll help you push it open."

As she spoke, she reached out and gently grasped his hand. The instant their palms touched, her soul power surged into his sea of ​​consciousness along the point where their hands met—that soul power was purer than any she had ever used before, like a spiritual spring that had been repeatedly purified, slowly seeping into the edges of his consciousness, smoothing out the fine roughness along the way, like the edges of pebbles polished by flowing water.

Li Hanshan closed his eyes, letting the warm power flow through his sea of ​​consciousness. He could feel the boundaries of his divine consciousness expanding at an unprecedented speed. This expansion was completely different from the impact of breaking through cultivation—it was more stable and more continuous, like a carefully controlled tide, with the seawater gradually overflowing the new shoreline and pushing the familiar view outward.

One layer, two layers, three layers. The invisible barrier between the Nascent Soul stage and the Void Refinement stage began to show fine lines under the continuous infusion of soul power, like a spiderweb of cracks appearing on the surface of ice soaked in warm water. Li Hanshan sensed that the lines were expanding rapidly, spreading from the center outwards, each crack precisely following the smallest gaps in his divine sense, like carefully designed fuses.

He didn't rush to push it. At that moment, Luo Li's soul power became even purer, like a river suddenly accelerating, carrying the scattered fragments of his divine consciousness towards the crack. He felt the boundaries of his divine consciousness suddenly light up under the combined force, golden light spreading rapidly along the lines like a lit lamp wick, and then—

A faint cracking sound echoed deep within his sea of ​​consciousness. The sound of the barrier shattering was like a string stretched to its limit finally snapping, or like a thin layer of ice melting completely under the warm spring sun. In that instant, his divine sense expanded outward by a full circle, its coverage suddenly extending from within a thousand miles to several thousand miles. The golden light within his sea of ​​consciousness also surged simultaneously, illuminating the corners that had previously been covered in shadow.

He possessed the divine sense of the Void Refinement level. He crossed that threshold.

At the center of his consciousness, the divine sword that had hovered for many years suddenly emitted a deep hum the moment his divine sense broke through. In that instant, the sword's form underwent a visible change—the originally slender blade became more solid, and the silver-gray halo around its edge suddenly expanded, like a reforged blade, radiating a sharpness that made even his divine soul tremble slightly. It was no longer an intangible existence between reality and illusion, but a genuine, tangible sword shadow formed from pure soul power. The golden patterns and silver halo on its blade intertwined and flowed, like a divine weapon forged countless times.

This process, though short in name, actually took more than ten years.

Once you reach the Nascent Soul stage or higher, cultivation becomes endless, day and night, and hundreds of years can pass in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, this is a dream; no matter how much time passes, for Li Hanshan, it's just a dream.

When Li Hanshan opened his eyes, Luo Li had already withdrawn her hand. Her face was a few shades paler than before, but her eyes held a satisfied look of confirmation: "With your Void Refinement level divine sense, coupled with the Divine Soul Sword, your current divine soul attack methods can already rival those of a Void Refinement cultivator. Even if you encounter a true Void Refinement cultivator, you can catch them off guard and inflict a heavy loss." As she spoke, she stood up from the bluestone, her bare feet stepping onto the grass, the moonlight casting a long shadow behind her. "Grandpa, you've already surpassed your cultivation level in terms of divine sense. Now, as long as you accumulate spiritual power step by step, reaching the Void Refinement stage is only a matter of time."

Li Hanshan stood up, sensing the world within his sea of ​​consciousness that had expanded several times over. He could perceive that the golden membrane at the edge of the dream had become even more solid under the touch of his Void Refinement level divine sense, as if the entire dream space was being reinforced in sync with the improvement of his divine soul. He looked at Luo Li; under the moonlight, she was still dressed in white, her clear eyes captivating.

"Girl," he said, his voice serious, "have you ever thought about when we might meet in real life?"

Luo Li paused slightly. She turned to look at him, the moonlight casting a silvery halo on her eyelashes. After a long silence, she spoke, her voice carrying a seriousness veiled in lightness: "Grandpa, I'll wait for you to come find me." She didn't say anything more, but the light in her eyes made Li Hanshan's heart skip a beat. He could read in her gaze a restrained certainty he had never seen before.

"Wait for me," he said, no longer asking questions. He exited the dream, his consciousness like a fish surfacing, passing through layers of darkness, and falling back into his body in the cave. When he opened his eyes, the light of the luminous pearl still flowed endlessly on the ceiling of the stone chamber, and the leaves of the purple bamboo forest outside the window glistened with fine dewdrops in the morning light, reflecting glittering points of light like scattered gold.

He looked down at his hands, then closed his eyes to sense the divine soul sword in his sea of ​​consciousness, its light slowly receding. The sword's sharpness, like a blade sheathed, was now dormant, yet more solid than before. When he rose and stepped out of the stone chamber, dawn was breaking. Morning light seeped through the cracks in the stone door, drawing a thin, golden band on the floor of the stone hall. He stood in the morning light, holding nothing, yet the transformed divine soul sword hovered quietly deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, like a blade that had slumbered for too long, finally awaiting its time to be drawn.

"Thump~"

Just then, a bell rang out across the sky, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth.

Then, a streak of light flew over at an extremely fast speed and landed in Li Hanshan's hand.

"All disciples, proceed immediately to the sect square." The Ninth Elder's voice rang out from within the flowing light.

"Something big has happened." Li Hanshan's expression turned serious.