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

On the morning of the seventh day after the beast tide receded, Shen Yun stood on the stone platform in the center of the island, holding the silver-white communication talisman in her hand, and listened to the last message from the main city of the defense zone. The talisman burned out completely, turning into a wisp of smoke and dissipating in the morning breeze.

She turned around, her gaze sweeping over the disciples who were clearing the battlefield debris. Her voice, amplified by her spiritual power, carried clearly throughout the entire island: "The beast tide has been confirmed to have receded completely. The main city of the defense zone has sent a message requesting all base islands to tally the casualties, tally the merits, and clean up the battlefield. Three days later, disciples from the Immortal Alliance will arrive to take over the defense. At that time, all personnel from the Purple Thunder Pavilion will return to Qingyun City with me."

She paused for a moment, then turned her gaze to the direction where Li Hanshan and Shen Qingyue were. "Elder Li, Qingyue, come with me to the Immortal Alliance headquarters to apply for merits."

Shen Qingyue was squatting not far away, examining a pile of demon cores salvaged from the remains of a sea beast. Upon hearing this, she looked up, her eyes brightening slightly: "The Immortal Alliance headquarters? Is it on the Immortal Island?"

"Hmm." Shen Yun nodded. "This time we killed two Void Refinement Beasts and provided support to many islands. With this merit, we are qualified to apply for entry into the core immortal island for cultivation."

At this point, she couldn't help but look at Li Hanshan. This time, Li Hanshan deserves great credit for killing two Void Refinement Beasts.

Li Hanshan was standing on the edge of the stone platform, playing with a sixth-order purple lightning talisman. Upon hearing this, he paused slightly before resuming his normal movements.

He remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was making rapid calculations.

He was incredibly curious about the Immortal Alliance headquarters and the Immortal Island, and it would be even better if he could go up and take a look.

He put away the talisman and stepped forward: "Then I'll go and gather the spoils of war from the battlefield first, and bring them along later."

For the next day and night, the more than two hundred disciples of the Purple Thunder Pavilion and the rotating garrison cultivators on the entire island were busy. The wounded were gathered in the eastern stone fortress for treatment, the bodies of the fallen were collected and registered one by one, and the counting of the spoils of war was carried out simultaneously by three groups of people.

Li Hanshan was in charge of sorting the remains of the sea beasts and the storage bags. He squatted on the gravel beach under the tower and disassembled the remains of the two Void Refinement demon beasts one by one. The scales on the back of the armored whale were still relatively intact. Although most of the scales of the silver snake were broken, the spine still maintained its complete structure. Each segment gleamed with a cold silver light and contained the pure remnants of demonic power inside.

He sorted the materials into different storage bags according to their grade, and then counted the demon cores and spiritual materials he had found on the low-level sea beasts. The demon cores alone filled three medium-sized storage bags. Among them, there were more than a dozen demon cores at the Nascent Soul level, more than a hundred at the Core Formation level, and countless at the Golden Core and Foundation Establishment levels.

This demonstrates the immense power of the demonic beast.

Shen Qingyue was in charge of keeping statistics on the consumption of talisman paper.

She stood in front of the table covered with fragments of talisman paper on the inside of the tower, checking the number of low-level spirit talismans that had been consumed one by one. Finally, she came up with a number that made her raise her eyebrows slightly: "Four thousand three hundred first-level purple lightning talismans were used, two thousand one hundred second-level talismans were used, nearly a thousand third-level talismans were used... and three sixth-level purple lightning talismans were used."

Li Hanshan sealed the last bag of demon cores he had: "The consumption was considerable."

On the morning of the third day, when the replacement disciples sent by the Immortal Alliance arrived at the island in three spirit boats, the Purple Thunder Pavilion's team was already fully prepared to depart.

Shen Yun stood at the front of the group and made a brief handover to the leader of the team that was taking over—a middle-aged male cultivator with a dignified appearance. After handing him the defense array diagram and the list of supplies, she turned around and signaled the team to board a silver flying boat that was already waiting on the sea.

The flying boat's design was unlike any other flying magical artifact Li Hanshan had ever seen before. It was entirely silver-white, with a narrow hull, and three spirit stones pulsating with spatial fluctuations were inlaid at the stern. Its surface was covered with intricate teleportation array patterns. Shen Yun stood at the bow, channeling spiritual power into the flying boat using the sect leader's token to activate it. The array patterns on the hull suddenly lit up with a silver-white light, enveloping the entire flying boat and the twenty-odd people on board.

"Hold on tight." Shen Yun's voice came from the bow of the ship. "This teleportation will be a bit bumpy."

Before the words were even finished, the airship suddenly accelerated, its hull shooting forward like a taut arrow, the surrounding space twisting and stretching dramatically with the acceleration.

In that instant, Li Hanshan's Void Refinement level divine sense instinctively probed the array patterns on the ship's hull, sensing the operational trajectory of those runes in the spatial folds—they shared the same origin as the teleportation array structure on the Immortal Alliance's Southern Ridge defense line, but were more precise and denser in arrangement, with each rune precisely corresponding to a certain spatial coordinate in the distance.

He silently memorized the arrangement of the runes, preparing to ask Luo Li for guidance when he entered the dream world later.

About an incense stick later, the speed of the airship suddenly slowed down, and the stretched and distorted spatial textures were smoothed out again like unfolded silk.

Li Hanshan felt a solid ground beneath his feet, and the boat had come to a steady stop at the edge of a huge island shrouded in spiritual mist.

When he looked up, what he saw made him pause slightly.

Looking out from the dock where the airship is moored, all that can be seen are rolling green hills and well-arranged buildings. Layer upon layer of palaces and pavilions are interspersed between the ridges and valleys. The mist, like a flowing veil, wraps around the eaves and treetops, enveloping the entire island in a warm, hazy glow.

The concentration of spiritual energy in the air was several times higher than anywhere he had ever been before. Every breath he took was sweet and refreshing, like a spring. Even the spiritual energy in his meridians was spontaneously accelerating its flow, as if his body itself was cheering for this world.

"This immortal island is about 120 miles in circumference," Shen Yun's voice came from behind. "It is the largest reception island on the outskirts of the Immortal Alliance headquarters, specifically used to handle the application for merits from various sects and the allocation of resources."

She stepped off the flying boat and stood on the bluestone ground of the dock, her gaze sweeping over the various flying boats of different colors that were constantly rising and falling in the distance. "The spiritual veins of these immortal islands are connected to the Vast Ocean Array—the Immortal Alliance has laid out a massive spirit-gathering array covering hundreds of thousands of miles, based on the spiritual veins of the entire endless seabed, to gather the essence of the spiritual veins that were originally unusable directly into these core islands. It is precisely because the spiritual energy is so abundant that it has attracted the attention of those deep-sea monsters."

Li Hanshan followed Shen Yun off the flying boat, his gaze sweeping over the figures of people moving around the dock.

He saw cultivators dressed in various sect uniforms coming and going on the bluestone avenue. Some were talking, some were looking down and flipping through jade slips, and a few were taking goods out of their storage bags and handing them over to the registration officer at the dock.

Most of those cultivators were at least at the Nascent Soul stage, and occasionally a few auras at the Divine Transformation stage could be seen flashing by in the crowd.

In the distance, amidst the scattered palaces on the mountain ridges, several even more profound and restrained auras were slowly moving, like giant whales swimming in the deep sea, seemingly calm on the surface but harboring a tremendous power capable of overturning the entire ocean.

"Your Purple Thunder Pavilion arrived quickly." A voice came from the other side. Li Hanshan turned his head and saw a middle-aged man in a dark blue robe jumping off a spirit boat that had just come to a stop, followed by several disciples who were also wearing blue uniforms.

The man had a square face and an air of composure that came with years of holding a high position. He wore a silver token with the words "Luoyun" engraved on it at his waist, and the aura emanating from him was clearly that of a Void Refiner.

Shen Yun nodded slightly: "Sect Leader Xiao, it's been a long time."

Xiao Yuanshan, the sect leader of Luoyun Sect, walked closer and glanced at Shen Yun. Then, his steps suddenly stopped as if he had been nailed to the ground.

His eyes, which had been carrying a casual smile, suddenly contracted when they met the restrained yet profound spiritual energy emanating from Shen Yun. His smile froze for a full breath before returning to normal. "Sect Leader Shen…you've broken through to the Void Refinement stage?"

His voice carried a dryness that still held a hint of disbelief even after being repeatedly confirmed.

Shen Yun stood at the edge of the dock, her deep purple dress fluttering slightly in the sea breeze, her face calm as ever: "I broke through by sheer luck, during the beast tide a few days ago."

She didn't offer much explanation, but she also didn't deliberately conceal the unique aura of a Void Refinement cultivator emanating from her.

Xiao Yuanshan was silent for a moment, then laughed. The casual tone of his smile had faded somewhat: "Sect Master Shen is indeed remarkable. The Purple Thunder Pavilion already has a profound foundation in the Dao of Talismans, and now with the addition of you, the Refinement Void Sect Master, its future development is limitless."

He turned slightly to the side, as if reorganizing his next words, "Since Sect Master Shen has already crossed that threshold, I will not beat around the bush. My Luoyun Sect is willing to form an alliance with the Zilei Pavilion, sharing resources and exchanging disciples. If Sect Master Shen is willing, I can propose to the higher-ups of the Immortal Alliance that the Zilei Pavilion be included in the first-priority support list. There is only one condition—if the Immortal Alliance takes any major actions in the future, the Zilei Pavilion and my Luoyun Sect will stand on the same side and act together."

Shen Yun's gaze fell on Xiao Yuanshan's face. After a moment of silence, she spoke: "I will consider Sect Leader Xiao's proposal. However, the Purple Thunder Pavilion's current focus is on consolidating defenses after this beast tide and on reporting merits. It's not too late to discuss the alliance later."

Her tone was neither warm nor cold, neither a direct rejection nor a clear acceptance, stopping just at that perfect line.

Xiao Yuanshan understood the subtle hint and smiled, not pressing the matter further. He simply cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, saying, "Then I will await Sect Leader Shen's message. I won't disturb your journey to the Hall of Merit to complete the formalities. We can talk another day."

After he finished speaking, he led his disciples to the other side of the dock, and his dark blue figure quickly disappeared at the corner of the blue stone road shrouded in spiritual mist.

More sects arrived at the dock one after another.

When a fleet of crimson spirit boats carrying dozens of disciples dressed in crimson outfits landed, the leader was an old man with white hair. The pressure emanating from his body was also hovering on the edge of the Void Refinement realm. He nodded slightly to Shen Yun in greeting, and then led the group quickly toward the Hall of Merit.

When a pure white flying boat landed at a secluded berth, several female cultivators dressed in white dresses stepped out. The one in the lead had a beautiful face as clear as frost and a calm aura as steady as water. Her gaze lingered on Shen Yun for a moment, and when she noticed the change in Shen Yun's aura, she was startled and then looked away.

Standing on the edge of the flying boat, Li Hanshan's gaze swept over the various flying boats that were landing one after another and the cultivators who were crisscrossing on the bluestone road. His assessment of the overall strength of the Immortal Alliance was being updated layer by layer.

More than ten sects came to this dock to apply for merits, and many of them had cultivators at the Refinement Void level in charge.

The even heavier auras moving among the distant mountain ridges and palaces were more numerous and denser than any area he had sensed within the Hehuan Sect.

"The current foundation of the Immortal Alliance is indeed beyond the reach of the three major demonic sects." Li Hanshan thought silently, but his steps did not falter at all. "The development speed of the righteous sects over the past thousand years has far exceeded anyone's expectations. Once the war in the north is really launched, even if the three major demonic sects join forces, they probably won't be able to hold out for long."

Various thoughts raced through Li Hanshan's mind.

His foundation is in the Hehuan Sect, and his women are still there. If the Immortal Alliance really attacks, his position will become extremely awkward. Should he help the Hehuan Sect or the Immortal Alliance?

As a cultivator of the Hehuan Sect, once his identity is exposed, no matter what he says, the Immortal Alliance probably won't believe him.

The best outcome would be a long-term stalemate between the Immortal Alliance and the Demonic Sect, with neither side able to completely overpower the other, giving him enough time to grow, plan, and ultimately find a path that can protect both himself and those he cares about.

"Elder Li?" Shen Qingyue's voice came from ahead, tinged with a hint of doubt. "What are you thinking about? You're walking so slowly."

Li Hanshan snapped out of his reverie and quickened his pace to catch up with her: "Nothing, I was just thinking about exchanging merit points."

Shen Qingyue glanced at him but didn't ask any further questions.

She walked beside him, her light blue dress shimmering gently in the spiritual mist. Her steps were light, and her gaze swept curiously over the various cultivators from different sects who were passing by.

Li Hanshan walked on the other side of Shen Yun, and the three of them soon merged into the crowd surging towards the Hall of Merit.

The Hall of Merit sits atop a towering stone platform in the center of the island. Its entrance consists of two massive, pure white doors, their surfaces intricately engraved with runes that emanate spatial fluctuations identical to those of the Southern Ridge defense line. A long queue has already formed before the doors, with cultivators from various sects entering in the order of their arrival. Some remain calm, while others whisper to their companions, checking the numbers on their merit lists.