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

The building was much smaller than the Hall of Merit, but its interior layout was more compact and orderly.

Rows of wooden shelves were neatly stacked with various spiritual materials, pills and magical artifacts, with the required merit points marked below each item.

Several cultivators dressed in their official robes were busy behind the counter. Some were explaining the differences between different grades of pills to the cultivators in front of them, while others were loading a box of spirit stones onto a cart and sending it to the warehouse at the back.

Shen Yun walked to the counter and handed over the merit jade token: "Exchange for a batch of cultivation resources needed to enter the core immortal island."

As she spoke, she took out a pre-made list from her sleeve and placed it on the counter: "Mainly pills, supplemented with spirit stones and some talisman-making materials."

The steward took the list, glanced at it, confirmed the points in the merit jade token, nodded slightly, and turned to walk towards the warehouse at the back.

When he returned a moment later, he was followed by two assistants, each carrying several storage bags. He placed the storage bags one by one on the counter and opened them. A rich, almost tangible medicinal fragrance wafted out, filling the air around the counter with a warm and gentle aroma.

Li Hanshan stood beside Shen Yun, his gaze sweeping over the neatly stacked jade bottles in the storage bags.

The jade bottles were all of uniform size, with spiritual tags on them indicating the grade and quantity of the pills. He glanced at them briefly and identified several common pills among them—Rejuvenation Pill, Foundation Strengthening Pill, and Mind Concentration Pill. These were all basic pills suitable for cultivators from the Nascent Soul to the early stage of Void Refinement, and most of them were between the fourth and fifth grades.

However, he also noticed something—most of those pills were standard products uniformly refined by the Immortal Alliance, and their quality was only average, and their medicinal power was not particularly pure.

Moreover, judging from the list, the exchange price of these pills is not low. A single Grade 5 Rejuvenation Pill requires several thousand merit points. If you want to prepare enough for five years, you will probably have to spend most of the 3.7 million merit points.

He silently estimated in his mind that with his expertise in alchemy, if he were to refine pills of the same grade, the cost could be reduced by at least 50%, and the quality could be improved by a grade.

He lacked sufficient experience with Refining Void level pills, but he had already mastered many improved ancient formulas for commonly used pills in the Nascent Soul stage. If he could refine a batch of pills himself before entering the core immortal island, he could not only save a lot of merit points, but also make the girls' cultivation efficiency on the immortal island much higher.

His gaze lingered on the storage bags for a moment, and after weighing his options, he ultimately remained silent.

His talent in talismanic arts was already remarkable enough; if he were to reveal his alchemy abilities as well, it would only lead Shen Yun to make more unnecessary speculations about his identity.

Shen Yun carefully put away the storage bags one by one, and then used the remaining merit points to exchange for several batches of spirit stones and talisman-making materials before nodding in satisfaction. She turned to Li Hanshan and Shen Qingyue: "Alright, everything that needed to be done has been done. Let's return to the sect."

The three walked back to the dock along the blue stone corridor they had come from, and the silver-white flying boat was still parked in the same spot.

Shen Yun activated the teleportation array on the flying boat, and the silvery-white light once again enveloped the three of them.

Before the teleportation was activated, Li Hanshan took one last look at the outline of the immortal island shrouded in spiritual mist, carefully memorizing it in his mind. Then, the flying boat accelerated, space folded, and the world in his field of vision rapidly contracted and expanded. When he felt solid ground beneath his feet again, he was already back in the plaza outside the Purple Thunder Pavilion's mountain gate.

The autumn atmosphere at Zi Lei Pavilion was even more pronounced than when they left.

The edges of the spirit trees lining the mountain path were already tinged with a pale gold, reflecting tiny specks of light in the afternoon sun. Shen Yun stopped at the edge of the plaza and turned to Shen Qingyue: "Qingyue, go back to your residence and rest for a while, and sort out the spoils from this beast tide. I have a few words to say to your Elder Li."

Shen Qingyue glanced at her mother, then at Li Hanshan, her eyes filled with a subtle inquiry. But she didn't ask any questions. After responding, she turned and walked towards the other side of the mountain path. Her pale blue figure quickly disappeared around the corner of the stone steps, hidden by the spirit trees.

After Shen Yun waited until her daughter was out of sight, she turned to Li Hanshan and gestured for him to follow her.

The two walked along a secluded path around the main hall, through a quiet courtyard surrounded by purple bamboo, and stopped in a stone pavilion.

Shen Yun sat down on the stone bench, remained silent for a moment before speaking, her voice a few decibels lower than usual: "The core immortal island will open in two months. Once inside, one cannot leave for five years. Qingyue is going with us too."

She paused, as if considering her words, "The thing I told you last time—the wedding. If you don't want a big fuss, then just have a simple ceremony, just the three of us, Qingyue and I, will know."