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

Time flowed slowly and steadily forward in this cavern shrouded in golden light, like a river stretched many times longer.

The sound of the spiritual spring water echoed in every room, the mist lingered, and the concentration of spiritual energy in the air remained so dense that it almost stretched one's meridians. The rock surfaces on the cave walls, smoothed by Shen Yun's magical artifacts, shimmered with a warm luster in the light of the night-shining pearls, reflecting the three figures cultivating, meditating, and engaging in dual cultivation day after day in their respective rooms.

Five years. This is the fifth year since Li Hanshan entered the core immortal island.

He sat cross-legged on the spiritual grass mat in the center of the quiet room. Pure Yang energy surged through his meridians like a tide. The surface of his pure Yang primordial spirit in his sea of ​​consciousness was covered with fine silver-purple lightning patterns, like a carefully carved jade statue gleaming with a warm, cold light in the dim light.

The barrier between the seventh and eighth levels of the Nascent Soul realm had been repeatedly attacked by him countless times. With each attack, a fine crack appeared on the surface of the barrier, like the cracks that appear on ice after being repeatedly struck under the warm spring sun, slowly and irreversibly expanding.

The light of his pure Yang primordial spirit suddenly more than doubled in brightness at that moment, like kindling being ignited. Golden light spread from the depths of his dantian to his limbs and bones, surging endlessly through his meridians. The barrier that had stood there for so long finally shattered completely, turning into countless fine fragments that were swept away from his body by the pure Yang energy.

He reached the eighth level of the Nascent Soul stage. He had finally crossed that threshold.

Li Hanshan opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of turbid air. The breath was pale gold, condensed in the air and did not dissipate until it slowly dissipated after a while. He looked down and sensed the state of his body. The total amount of spiritual power was nearly 50% more abundant than before the breakthrough, and the surface of his pure Yang primordial spirit had become more solid due to the tempering during the breakthrough. The silver-purple lightning patterns were particularly clear under the golden light.

The main reason it took him five years to break through from the peak of the seventh level of the Nascent Soul realm to the eighth level was because the quality of his Pure Yang Primordial Spirit was too high. Each breakthrough required polishing the entire Primordial Spirit to its limit, like polishing a gemstone, leaving no room for even the slightest impurity. Although the layer of silver-purple lightning patterns provided him with additional tempering during continuous dual cultivation, it also made the accumulation of spiritual power with each session much slower—because the quality of spiritual power improved with each cycle, and the improved spiritual power required even more accumulation to reach the critical point of the next bottleneck.

Shen Qingyue was sitting opposite him, meditating on a jade slip. Sensing his breakthrough aura, she opened her eyes and looked at the golden light around him that was slowly receding. Her clear eyes curved into crescents: "Congratulations, my husband."

Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, carrying a gentle warmth that had been refined over the past five years: "You've reached the eighth level of the Nascent Soul stage."

Li Hanshan stood up and stretched his limbs. Although his cultivation had improved significantly, his greatest gain over the past five years was not in his dantian, but deep within his sea of ​​consciousness.

For the past five years, every month or so, he would enter the dream he shared with Luo Li. On the riverbank under the moonlight, Luo Li would always be waiting for him. Sometimes the two of them would sit side by side on the bluestone, studying the last few pages of the "Ancient Talisman Record" that they had not yet deciphered. Sometimes they would temper each other through dual cultivation of their souls. Sometimes they would argue about the best position for a certain rune until golden ripples appeared at the edge of the dream.

Luo Li's progress was even greater than his. She was already a highly talented cultivator, having accumulated a vast amount of knowledge by studying ancient texts in the Yao Guang Sect's library and exploring ancient ruins during her travels. Over the past five years, those fragments have been systematically organized, connected, and refined, gradually piecing together an increasingly complete picture.

Her comprehension of talismanic arts, array arts, and alchemy was already far beyond that of ordinary people. In addition, the various new experiences and techniques that Li Hanshan brought back from the Immortal Alliance were like adding fuel to a fire that had already accumulated a lot of firewood, making it burn even more vigorously.

Meanwhile, Li Hanshan's soul also underwent a qualitative change as it continued to merge with Luo Li's soul power.

Having been refined and polished so many times, the foundation of his Void Refinement level divine sense has now been completely stabilized at the level of the third level of Void Refinement.

His divine sense covered a range several times larger than before he entered the immortal island. He could even occasionally catch a few complete structural outlines of the array patterns outside the cave, which were protected by strict restrictions, during very brief intervals.

But his greatest gains were in those areas that could not be measured by cultivation levels.

Alchemy. Over the past five years, he and Luo Li have searched through almost every ancient alchemy recipe they could get their hands on in their dreams. The spiritual herbs they brought back from the ruins of the Yao Guang Sect were refined into several high-quality pills using a modified ancient method. With the help of the cyclical tempering of dual cultivation, his meridians and primordial spirit foundation became more solid.

His alchemy skills have now far surpassed others' imaginations. He can easily produce pills of grade six or lower, and even for some rare Void Refinement level pills, he has found some alternative and improved solutions.

The Dao of Arrays. He had witnessed the actual operation of teleportation arrays and time arrays within the Immortal Alliance, and had repeatedly deduced the transformation patterns of spatial runes with Luo Li in his dreams. Those structures that had once puzzled him were now gradually becoming clearer in his eyes. Although he was still far from truly understanding time arrays, he could already comprehend more than 50% of the outer rune structures. He even set up several improved spirit-gathering arrays in his cave dwelling, making the spiritual energy concentration in Cave Dwelling No. 9 nearly 20% higher than in other cave dwellings.

His mastery of talismans has also made remarkable progress. Besides the sixth-tier Purple Thunder Talisman and the Double-layered Talisman, he has mastered several other types of talismans for different purposes—his protective talismans have been upgraded to the sixth tier, and the crafting technique for escape talismans has been repeatedly optimized, with a success rate consistently above 80%. Shen Qingyue's storage bag is mostly filled with various talismans he personally drew, for protection, escape, and attack—clearly defined and well-stocked.

Of course, these achievements were not entirely accomplished in just five years, but rather were the culmination of decades of prior work.

Shen Qingyue's changes were equally obvious.

Over the past five years, her cultivation level has steadily increased under the continuous nourishment of Li Hanshan's pure Yang energy. She has now advanced from the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm to the late-stage, just one step away from the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

Her lightning spirit body and Li Hanshan's pure yang energy were like two instruments that had been repeatedly tuned, playing an increasingly harmonious duet in each cultivation session. When she sat opposite him to regulate her breathing, the silver-purple lightning power flowed quietly around her like a tamed river, and the smoothness of her spiritual energy circulation far exceeded that of five years ago.

More importantly, the dormant meridians within her body had been gradually unblocked and activated by Li Hanshan using pure Yang energy over the past five years, like seeds that had been moistened by rain finally finding a crack to sprout. Now, the width of her meridians and the capacity of her spiritual energy have increased significantly compared to when she broke through to the late Nascent Soul stage, laying an extremely solid foundation for her future attempt to reach the Divine Transformation stage.

Shen Yun saw all of this without saying anything, but every time she saw the stability of her daughter's spiritual energy flow while she was meditating in the quiet room, the satisfaction in her almond-shaped eyes would increase.

She initially betrothed her daughter to Li Hanshan, ostensibly for the sake of the Purple Thunder Pavilion's talismanic heritage. However, seeing Shen Qingyue's progress in cultivation over the years and the increasingly bright smile in her eyes, the guilt she felt due to the political marriage was gradually fading away, replaced by a sense of relief after repeated confirmation.

Every time Li Hanshan pushed open the door to her room late at night, Shen Yun was more cooperative than before. She no longer needed him to persuade or guide her as she had at the beginning. Sometimes, as soon as he sat down by the stone platform, she would already have untied the belt of her clothes, her gaze fixed on his face, silently waiting for him to approach.

The rhythm of the spiritual energy circulation has also changed from initially requiring him to take the lead to a natural synchronization between the two of them. She can feel the tempering effect brought about by his pure yang energy flowing through her meridians, each time becoming purer than the last, like water that has been repeatedly polished, carrying away a layer of fine impurities with each wash, leaving behind a clearer riverbed.

Over the past five years, apart from his dreams with Luo Li, he would also enter that grayish-white void every year or two.

The woman with the sword emerged from the swirling mist once again, dressed in a long, pale blue robe, her hair held back with a wooden hairpin, the three-foot-long sword in her hand still gleaming with a chilling light. When she saw Li Hanshan, she still uttered those two words—"Heavenly Demon"—her voice slightly softer than before.

But her sword was no longer as sharp and decisive as it had been at the beginning. When the first sword was slashed, Li Hanshan was able to dodge it with ease; the trajectory of the second sword would show a brief delay; and the edge of the third sword would often deflect slightly three inches before it touched his throat.

Sometimes he would meet her sword intent head-on with his Divine Soul Sword, the humming sound of the two invisible swords colliding in the void growing deeper and deeper. In these five years of continuous contact, he had come to understand more from her sword intent—it was a path that shared the same origin as the Yao Guang Sect's swordsmanship yet was completely different, like two branches that split off from the same tree, one growing towards the sky, the other drooping towards the earth.

He would ask her just before she was shattered from her dream, "What's your name?"

She never answered. But in the intervals between her sword strikes, Li Hanshan could vaguely see the icy silence deep within her eyes slowly melting away.

He recalled Luo Li's words: everyone he met head-on with his Divine Soul Sword would be imbued with the opponent's sword intent during the exchange, like two iron swords placed in the same furnace, leaving each other's mark regardless of victory or defeat. He didn't know if this meant she would eventually stop wielding her sword, but he could sense that distance was closing at an extremely slow pace.

That day, Li Hanshan was organizing the double talismans that had already been drawn on the talisman-making table in the quiet room when he suddenly sensed an unusual fluctuation of spiritual energy coming from next door.

The fluctuation was extremely subtle; if his array skills hadn't improved so much, he would have been almost unaware of it—it briefly lost harmony with the resonance frequency of the outer restrictions of the cave, like a pebble thrown into a calm river, creating a fine ripple.

He put down the talisman brush and carefully probed the discordant spot with his Void Refinement level divine sense. He quickly discovered that the flaw was actually extremely well hidden, concealed in the gap between the edge of the restriction and the rock wall. If his divine sense had not been sharp enough, it would have been almost impossible to detect it.

Without hesitation, he condensed his divine sense into an extremely fine thread and silently seeped into the opening. The patterns of the array unfolded before his eyes, like a curtain being drawn back, revealing the scene of an adjacent cave below.

It was a small cave dwelling, even more simply furnished than Cave Dwelling No. 9. A woman sat on a stone platform in the very center, her long hair cascading over her shoulders. Her face was beautiful, yet it was flushed with an unnatural redness, as if a raging fire was burning through her veins.

Her body was surrounded by extremely chaotic spiritual energy fluctuations, like a turbulent pool of water, with chaotic eddies surging on the surface and a riverbed about to dry up underneath.

He went mad from practicing qi cultivation.

Li Hanshan quickly assessed her condition. Her aura was unstable, like a dam about to burst, ready to explode at any moment when her spiritual energy went out of control.