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

As the night breeze rustled through the purple bamboo forest on the southern slope, the sound of bamboo leaves flowed between the two. Li Hanshan stood up from the protruding rock platform, and Ye Shuanghua followed suit, her silver-white robes brushing against the bluestone ground.

"Wait for me for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn," she said. Without waiting for his reply, she transformed into a streak of silver-white light and soared into the sky, heading towards the main peak. The streak of light left a long trail in the twilight, faster than usual, as if afraid that he would set off on his own while she was away.

Li Hanshan leaned against the purple bamboo on the edge of the rock platform, watching the lights on the main peak flicker in the night mist. About half an hour later, the silver-white escape light reappeared in his sight. When it landed, Ye Shuanghua's robes were covered with a few pieces of medicinal herbs from the alchemy room. He had a stack of talismans between his left fingers and held a pure silver-white jade box in his right hand.

She stopped in front of Li Hanshan and handed him the stack of talismans: "These are what I've collected over the years. Keep them safe. Five protective talismans, three attack talismans, and one more—" She paused, then pulled out a dark gold talisman with extremely fine engravings from the bottom of the stack and carefully placed it in his palm. "This is a sixth-tier escape talisman, at the Void Refinement level. Once crushed, it will instantly transport you a thousand miles away."

Li Hanshan looked down at the dark golden talisman in his palm. It was warm to the touch, and the patterns on its surface were as fine as a spider web. At its core flowed a steady spatial power, which was far purer than any escape talisman he had ever seen.

"Senior sister, what about you?"

"I won't be going out recently. They won't dare to do anything to me within the Hehuan Sect, so you don't need to worry about me."

"Okay, thank you, senior sister."

Li Hanshan carefully stored the sixth-order escape talisman deep inside his storage ring, and then sorted and put away the other talismans. Ye Shuanghua then handed over the silver-white jade box: "Inside are a few Foundation Strengthening Pills suitable for the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm. You should still have some of the ones you refined yourself, keep them as spares." After she finished speaking, she took a step back, as if she did not intend to say anything more.

"Senior Sister," Li Hanshan said. Ye Shuanghua stopped but didn't turn around. Li Hanshan stepped forward, gently putting his arm around her shoulder, his palm against the fabric of her back, feeling the slight outline of her spine beneath her silver-white outfit. He didn't say anything, just stood there for a moment, then released her hand and took a step back. "See you in three days."

Ye Shuanghua finally turned around and glanced at him, her clear, cold eyes holding a faint warmth in the moonlight. She didn't speak, only nodded, then transformed into a streak of silver-white light and soared into the sky, quickly disappearing into the spiritual mist towards the main peak. Li Hanshan stood alone on the rocky platform, storing the stack of talismans and the jade box into his storage ring, then turned and walked back along the stone path to his southern cave dwelling.

As the stone door closed behind him, the lights in the stone hall came on. Hua Nongying leaned against the stone couch, pipe in hand; Liu Ruoxue sat on a futon by the window, flipping through an ancient book; Yun Shuyue and Jiang Nianwei were whispering at a low table; and the Second Elder, Wu Xinyue, leaned against the stone wall, eyes closed, as if she had been waiting for him for a long time. Several gazes fell on him the moment he entered, and the suppressed silence was more inescapable than any interrogation.

Hua Nongying spoke first, twirling her pipe between her fingers: "We heard. The Ninth Elder specifically requested that you go to the Immortal Alliance, and you agreed."

Li Hanshan sat down at the low table, picked up the teacup Yun Shuyue pushed towards him, and took a sip: "I agree. I'm confident."

"What confidence?" Liu Ruoxue put down the ancient book, her voice icy, but her gaze remained fixed on his face.

"I have a way to bypass the detection array." He put down his teacup. "And there are people on the Immortal Alliance's side—I saved a female disciple of the Immortal Alliance more than twenty years ago, and she gave me a Guest Elder Token. That token can pass through the defenses of the Southern Ridge Mountains." He could sense that the women's gazes relaxed slightly when he said the words "Guest Elder Token." Hua Nongying's fingers holding the pipe paused for a moment, Liu Ruoxue leaned back in her chair, and Yun Shuyue's gaze, though still filled with worry, softened a bit more than before.

Jiang Nianwei put down the jade slip in her hand, her voice clear and serious: "Is everything packed? Are the talismans, pills, and spirit stones enough?" Li Hanshan patted his storage ring: "Yes, enough. Senior Sister Ye just gave me a stack of talismans, and a sixth-tier escape talisman."

The silence in the stone hall lasted for a few breaths. The suppressed worry was slowly fading like melting ice, but it still lingered. Second Elder Wu Xinyue straightened up from the stone wall, her red robes brushing the ground. She walked to Li Hanshan and patted his shoulder: "If you die out there, I won't be collecting your body." Li Hanshan looked up at her; her languid demeanor clearly carried concern.

After nightfall, only the candle on the low table remained burning quietly in the stone hall.

Li Hanshan then engaged in passionate lovemaking with several women in the stone chamber, bringing himself to his peak condition.

Three days later, early in the morning, Li Hanshan woke up early. The sky outside the window was already slightly bright. Without disturbing the women, he quietly pushed open the stone door. A purple-gold light silently rose from the stone platform in front of the cave on the southern slope, like a leaf blown by the wind, skimming along the treetops towards the direction of the Hehuan Sect's mountain gate.

As he passed through the automatically opening gap in the protective array, he could sense the lights of the various peaks of the Hehuan Sect gradually going out in the morning mist. The disciples who had not yet woken up were still asleep in their respective caves, while others cultivated day and night. The purple-gold escape light drew a long and restrained trail in the morning light, rushing towards the outline of the northern mountain range, leaving the outline of the bamboo forest on the southern slope far behind.

However, just a thousand miles after he flew out of the Hehuan Sect's mountain gate, his Void Refinement level divine sense detected an extremely subtle aura, like a spider's thread swaying in the wind, following his escape trajectory at a fixed distance. The aura was extremely well concealed; if his divine sense hadn't already broken through to the Void Refinement level, it would have been impossible for him to discern it from the misty morning sky.

"As expected, I've been targeted." Li Hanshan felt a chill run down his spine, secretly relieved that he had broken through to the Void Refinement level of divine sense ahead of schedule.

The pursuer's cultivation level should be at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, just a hair's breadth away from the Void Refinement stage. If his divine sense were still at the Nascent Soul stage, he would have been relentlessly pursued by the opponent and intercepted at the opportune moment. But now his perception ability far surpasses that of the opponent. The pursuer thought he was hiding well, but he didn't know that his whereabouts had already been completely exposed.

He continued flying forward at a leisurely pace until a rolling hilly area appeared ahead. Just as he entered the valley between two hills, he suddenly activated a hand seal—an ancient concealment technique that Luo Li had taught him many years ago, called "Concealing Breath Escape," specifically designed to hide one's form while moving at high speed, with an effect far superior to ordinary methods of concealing one's aura. Spiritual energy flowed rapidly around his body, like air compressed to its limit, enveloping his aura, temperature, and spiritual energy fluctuations in a thin layer of golden light. Then, that light layer suddenly contracted, disappearing into the morning light like a drop of water merging into the sea.

When the pursuers entered the valley, they saw only an empty sky and slowly sinking morning mist. The purplish-gold streak of light, along with all the fluctuations of spiritual energy, had completely vanished, leaving not a trace of its presence. It was a gray figure, an ordinary-looking peak Nascent Soul cultivator, hovering above the valley. His divine sense, like invisible tentacles, swept across every inch of space within a hundred miles, yet he found nothing. His expression shifted from composure to confusion, then from confusion to a suppressed look of astonishment.

He took out a crimson communication talisman from his sleeve, crushed it, and the talisman transformed into an extremely thin red thread that shot towards the direction of the Hehuan Sect. A moment later, a gray streak of light flew rapidly from the direction of the Hehuan Sect, and when it landed in front of him, the pressure of its Void Refinement level power caused the surrounding rocks to tremble slightly. The Ninth Elder's face was as gloomy as the sky before a storm. He looked at the empty valley, his voice so low it was almost squeezed out between clenched teeth: "Where are they?"

"Your subordinate... followed him here, and suddenly his aura vanished." The gray-robed cultivator lowered his head, cold sweat glistening in the morning light on his forehead. "Your subordinate scanned the area within a hundred miles with his divine sense, but found nothing. It's as if he... disappeared into thin air."

The Ninth Elder remained silent for a few moments. Then he spoke, his voice neither loud nor soft, yet like a dull knife scraping against an iron plate: "You've cultivated to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage for many years, yet you can't even keep an eye on a junior at the fourth level of the Nascent Soul stage? No wonder you've been stuck at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage for so long..."

The gray-robed cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage had an extremely ugly expression. He was originally a core disciple, but because he was stuck at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, he lost his status as a core disciple and became a steward of the Joyful Union Sect.

Disciples and stewards seem to have a higher status, but this is not the case at the core disciple level. Stewards have to manage too many trivial matters, and their cultivation resources are greatly reduced.

Most importantly, elders would come from time to time to replenish their bodies.

Meanwhile, Li Hanshan was already thousands of miles away.

The ancient concealment technique was even more effective than he had anticipated. Once cast, it was like a drop of ink dissolving in water, making it difficult even for him to detect any lingering traces of his presence. Enveloped in that golden light, he changed direction—instead of continuing his direct flight south, he first circled northwest before turning due north. According to his pre-planned route, he intended to first enter the territory of the Yinquan Sect to reunite with Yin Lingyue, after which she would lead him south along a more concealed path.

This way, they can avoid being tracked by the Presbyterian Church.

Half a month later, a gray-black mountain range appeared in the distance. A faint, malevolent aura permeated the mountains, marking the boundary of the Yin Spring Sect's territory. Li Hanshan landed in a secluded mountain hollow, concealing all his presence, and then used his Yang runes to send a weak message to Yin Lingyue.

Less than half an hour later, a hunched figure silently emerged from the depths of the mountains and landed at the edge of the valley. Yin Lingyue was still disguised as an old woman, her cloudy eyes slightly moving in the morning light. She looked Li Hanshan up and down, and after confirming that he was in good condition, she did not ask any further questions. Then she summoned her flying boat, and Li Hanshan went straight into it.

Meanwhile, the Ninth Elder was tracking along the road to the Immortal Alliance Kingdom, his divine sense spreading out recklessly, yet he couldn't detect even a trace of Li Hanshan's presence.