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

"I wish there was someone at the Void Refinement stage who I could try out."

After his divine sense broke through to the Void Refinement stage, Li Hanshan suddenly wanted to find a Void Refinement stage to test his Divine Soul Sword.

"Buzz~" At this moment, the world suddenly trembled and buzzed. This was not an ordinary earthquake, but a buzzing sound from the depths of the rules of heaven and earth, as if the veins of the entire world trembled at the same moment, emitting a low and long resonance, like an ancient beast turning over deep in the earth's crust.

The vibration pierced through the mountain, the restrictions, and the ever-flowing pale golden light barrier of the protective array, rippling back and forth between the five peaks of the Hehuan Sect like an invisible ripple. Even the spiritual mist suspended in the air was shaken and surged, like ripples spreading across a disturbed surface of water. Li Hanshan felt the Divine Soul Sword in his sea of ​​consciousness, which had just undergone a qualitative change, tremble slightly in that resonance. A fine ripple appeared on the golden patterns on the surface of the sword before it returned to calm.

Then came the second, and the third. The intervals between the vibrations grew shorter, and the intensity increased. Even the luminous pearls embedded in the crevices of the rock ceiling began to sway slightly, casting flickering halos on the stone walls. Li Hanshan felt the divine soul sword in his sea of ​​consciousness, which had just undergone a qualitative change, tremble slightly with the resonance. A fine ripple spread across the golden patterns on the sword's surface before quickly returning to calm.

He strode to the entrance of the cave and pushed open the stone door. In the morning light, the outlines of the five peaks of the Hehuan Sect swayed slightly in the aftershocks of the earth-shaking tremor. The escaping lights that had been floating in the air all stopped, some hovering at low altitudes, others falling back to the ground. From the directions of each peak and hall came a chorus of exclamations and discussions, like a layer of stirred sound waves surging endlessly in the valley.

The pale golden light barrier of the mountain-protecting array rippled with dense waves under the impact of the vibration, spreading from the edges to the center. The frequency of the array patterns flickering was several times faster than usual. The distant sky took on an unusual dark blue color—not dark clouds, not haze, but a color stirred up by some force, like turbid silt churned up at the bottom of a pond, slowly surging and spreading along the horizon.

In the sky above the main hall of the main peak, several streaks of light rose at incredible speed. One gray streak was the most striking, moving with the speed of a knife through the air as it hurtled straight towards the summit—that was the Ninth Elder. Another streak of azure light rose simultaneously from the east, slightly slower, but its direction equally clear—it was the Fifth Elder. The two streaks of light landed one after the other on the roof of the Elder Hall. Moments later, several more auras rose from the various peaks, converging in the same direction like a disturbed swarm of bees.

Li Hanshan stood at the entrance of his cave, gazing at the sky that was gradually returning to calm. The aftershocks of the tremor were slowly receding, but the strange feeling of being stirred still lingered in the air, like an invisible veil covering the entire Hehuan Sect. His Void Refinement level divine sense instinctively probed in the direction from which the tremor came—the south, the extremely distant south.

"Han Lang!" Hua Nongying's voice came from behind. She quickly walked to his side, a pipe between her fingers but no light, her gaze also fixed on the churning dark blue clouds on the southern horizon. Her voice was filled with barely suppressed surprise and doubt, "What's going on? The entire Hehuan Sect's protective formation is shaking, even the mountain-protecting array is affected..."

Liu Ruoxue and Yun Shuyue emerged from their respective stone chambers one after the other. Liu Ruoxue's white robes gleamed coldly in the morning light. Standing at the edge of the stone steps, she glanced at the rapidly moving streaks of light heading towards the main peak and said succinctly, "The elders have all moved."

Jiang Nianwei peeked out from the alchemy room, a few fragments of spiritual herbs still clinging to her light green robes. Sensing the unusual disturbance in the air, her cool voice carried a certainty of confirmation: "The spiritual energy fluctuations coming from the south are not within the Hehuan Sect's territory. I've cultivated alchemy for many years and am quite sensitive to the flow and changes of spiritual energy in heaven and earth. This vibration... is extremely far away."

Before she finished speaking, a dense buzzing sound erupted from the direction of the main peak. One after another, streaks of light rose simultaneously from all five peaks of the Hehuan Sect, surging into the sky like a disturbed swarm of bees. Crimson flames, silver sword light, bluish-gray spiritual light, and dark purple shadows—countless streams of light tore through the morning sky at the same moment, weaving into a flowing net of light that illuminated the entire Hehuan Sect's dome like a painting on fire. The core disciples, who usually kept to themselves, broke out of their seclusion and hovered in mid-air, their gazes unanimously turning towards the churning dark blue sky to the south. Their divine senses communicated with each other like an invisible spiderweb, rapidly weaving in the morning light.

"Is someone undergoing the Tribulation of Dao Integration? That heavenly might..."

"Reaching the Dao? Who is breaking through to the Dao Integration stage? All three of our Holy Alliance's Dao Integration experts are still alive—"

"Could it be the sect leader?"

"Not too difficult. If it were the sect leader, the commotion would be much greater than this."

Whispers drifted from all directions, coalescing into a low hum in the morning breeze, like ripples spreading across a disturbed lake in the night wind. The suspended beams of light in the air gathered in greater numbers, increasing from dozens to hundreds, like a cluster of ignited stars scattered across the sky above the Hehuan Sect.

Li Hanshan stood at the entrance of the cave, his gaze passing over the flowing net of light to the dark blue clouds slowly dissipating in the south. Pure Yang energy flowed steadily in his meridians, and the divine soul sword in his sea of ​​consciousness had quietly settled down.

At that moment, a silvery-white streak of light shot through the air from the direction of the main peak, moving with the speed of an arrow released from its taut limit. The light abruptly stopped on the stone platform in front of the southern cave, and as the light dissipated, Ye Shuanghua's figure appeared, her expression unusually grave. The instant she landed, her gaze locked onto Li Hanshan: "You sensed it?"

"The heavens and earth shook, and strange phenomena were observed from the south." Li Hanshan nodded. "What happened?"

Ye Shuanghua strode up the stone steps, her voice low: "Dao Integration." As she uttered those two words, her voice carried a solemnity he rarely heard from her. "Someone is breaking through to Dao Integration. That kind of resonance with heaven and earth can't be a breakthrough at the Nascent Soul or Void Refinement levels; only a Dao Integration cultivator crossing that threshold would trigger such a phenomenon."

Li Hanshan's heart tightened suddenly: "Is it Master?"

Ye Shuanghua shook her head: "If it were Master, the epicenter of the tremor should be behind the main peak. But the strange phenomenon came from the south, at least 100,000 miles away. It must be someone from the Immortal Alliance." She paused, turning to look at the slowly dissipating dark blue clouds in the south, her voice even lower than before, "No matter who it is, the birth of a Dao Integration cultivator is enough to change the power structure of the entire Central Continent. The Immortal Alliance has always had one less Dao Integration cultivator than us, which is why they've been suppressed for so many years. If they fill that gap…"

She didn't finish her sentence, but Li Hanshan already understood the implied meaning. Dao Integration cultivators were like pillars of strength in every major sect; the addition or subtraction of a Dao Integration cultivator directly impacted the balance of power. If the Immortal Alliance filled that gap, then the Holy Alliance—the united front of the major demonic sects—would no longer hold an overwhelming advantage.

Just then, a gray communication talisman shot from the direction of the main peak, hovering precisely in front of Li Hanshan. The talisman burned, and the Ninth Elder's imposing voice emanated from it, sounding exceptionally clear in the morning light: "Li Hanshan, proceed to the Elder Hall immediately." The voice was brief and the tone left no room for doubt. After uttering the last word, the communication talisman shattered on its own, turning into a wisp of gray smoke and dissipating into the air.

Ye Shuanghua's gaze fell on the dissipating gray smoke, her brows furrowing slightly. "The Ninth Elder summoning you to the Elder Hall at this time is probably not a good thing." As she spoke, she raised her hand, summoning the Jinghong Sword. The silver-white flying sword hovered before her, its blade gleaming with a cold, eerie light in the morning glow. "I'll go with you."

The purple-gold and silver-white light intertwined in the morning breeze, leaving two long trails that passed through the lingering shadows of the gradually dissipating dark blue clouds and headed straight towards the Elder Hall shrouded in spiritual mist on the main peak.

The light emanating from the main peak was decreasing, with more of it landing on the rooftops surrounding the Elder Hall. Clearly, important figures from all the peaks were converging on the same spot.