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

Time flowed silently through the Flowing Light Array. When the watermark left on the stone wall of Cave No. 9 by the constant soaking of the spiritual spring mist deepened, the people in the cave suddenly realized that, unknowingly, they had spent fifteen years in this cave shrouded in a pale golden light curtain.

On this morning, the surface of the Spirit Spring Pool was unusually calm, without the usual rising mist. When Shen Qingyue stepped out of the meditation room, her gaze lingered for a moment on the ancient talisman scroll on the stone wall, a scroll that had been turned countless times.

She remembered that the last time she turned to the last page, there was a crease on the corner of the title page, but now that crease had been worn away so much from repeated reading that it was almost invisible.

She walked to the edge of the spirit spring pool and squatted down, her fingertips gently brushing the surface of the water. The traces left by fifteen years in this cave were more intricate than those in the outside world—the slight indentations on the stone platform from years of placing the alchemy furnace, the talisman brush in the corner that had been used up to half its length, each one silently telling the weight of time.

At noon, a silver-white communication talisman pierced through the crack in the barrier from the direction of the cave chamber, hovering precisely above the stone table. The sound of the talisman burning was exceptionally clear in the quiet space, and Elder Gong's steady voice emanated from it: "The Flowing Light Array will close in five days. All cultivators must leave the cave before the closing date."

The talisman's light dissipated completely after uttering the last word, turning into a wisp of smoke that merged into the rising mist of the spiritual spring. Shen Qingyue was the first to stand up, her gaze fixed on the dissipating silvery-white embers, her voice carrying a dazed quality, as if she had been so absorbed in cultivation that she hadn't noticed the passage of time: "Time flies so fast!"

Shen Yun put down her talisman brush, her deep purple dress shimmering warmly in the light of the luminous pearl. She picked up the cup of spirit tea on the stone table, which had long since gone cold, and took a sip. Her eyes held a natural sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both admiration and reflection) that arose naturally from looking back on time: "Unconsciously, I have been cultivating in this Flowing Light Array for fifteen years. If Elder Gong hadn't sent a message, I would have almost forgotten that only a year or two had passed in the outside world."

Lin Qingyin sat cross-legged on the stone platform beside the spirit spring pool, her early-stage Void Refinement aura radiating a calm and restrained light. Hearing Shen Yun's words, she slightly turned her head, a thoughtful glint in her clear eyes: "If it weren't for the hidden danger of cultivation deviation, we could actually stay in this formation for a longer time. The concentration of spiritual energy and the accelerating effect here are something no amount of spirit stones could buy outside."

What she said was indeed true. In the past fifteen years, their cultivation progress far exceeded what anyone could achieve through arduous training in the outside world. Shen Qingyue climbed from the mid-Nascent Soul stage all the way to the mid-Deity Transformation stage, establishing a solid foundation; Lin Qingyin crossed the threshold that had stood for so many years from the peak of the Deity Transformation stage, and is now a cultivator at the early stage of the Void Refinement stage; Shen Yun's early Void Refinement foundation has become even more stable through fifteen years of continuous tempering; and Li Hanshan himself has rushed from the seventh level of the Deity Transformation stage all the way to the peak of the Deity Transformation stage, only one step away from the Void Refinement stage.

Of course, the key to their rapid growth is Li Hanshan. If it weren't for Li Hanshan, even if they were given another fifteen years, they wouldn't have achieved such cultivation.

The three women naturally knew this.

Li Hanshan stood up and walked to the edge of the spirit spring pool. Fifteen years had passed like a scroll repeatedly unfolded and rolled up in his mind; the scenes of day and night cultivation, the tender moments of dual cultivation with the women, the focused concentration while repairing the array flags in the array's core chamber—every frame was clearly etched deep within his consciousness. He carefully reviewed the gains of these fifteen years in his heart—

His cultivation level climbed from the seventh level of the Nascent Soul stage to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and the layer of silver-purple lightning patterns had completely merged with his pure Yang primordial spirit. The total amount of spiritual power had more than doubled compared to before entering the Immortal Island, and its quality had also been raised to an unprecedented level due to continuous dual cultivation and the tempering of the rich spiritual energy in the Flowing Light Array.

In the art of talismans, the success rate of drawing sixth-order purple thunder talismans is consistently above 90%, and the success rate of drawing double-layered talismans is also above 80%. He applied the rune structures he improved from the ancient talisman records to actual combat, and the quality of the sixth-order double-layered purple thunder talismans he drew surpassed most of the existing historical records of the Purple Thunder Pavilion.

In alchemy, he and Luo Li scoured hundreds of ancient alchemy formulas in his dream, and now he can easily refine pills below the sixth grade, as evidenced by the success of the Clear Meridian Pill. His gains in array formations are the most crucial. He personally witnessed the basic structure of the Flowing Light Array, and in the process of repairing the twelve array flags, he gained a deeper understanding of the underlying logic of ancient arrays. He can now decipher more than 70% of the outer rune structure of the Flowing Light Array.

The greatest gain, however, came from his dream exchanges with Luo Li—the time spent on the banks of the Moonlit River allowed him to accumulate knowledge and insights that would be enough to support him on his future path.

On the spiritual level, he also gained a lot from the frequent dual spiritual cultivation with Luo Li and Xiao An. The foundation of his Void Refinement level spiritual consciousness has been repeatedly honed over the years, and he has broken through to the sixth level of Void Refinement. The sharpness of that spiritual sword is several times greater than it was fifteen years ago.

He gathered the scattered loot one by one, then turned around, his gaze sweeping over the three of them. His voice was neither loud nor soft: "In these last few days before the Flowing Light Array closes, pack everything you need and get ready to leave."

Shen Qingyue responded and turned to walk towards the quiet room to tidy up the spiritual ink and talisman brush on the talisman-making table. Shen Yun went to the room on the left and gathered up the several scrolls of cultivation techniques and fragments of talisman paper on the stone table one by one.

When Lin Qingyin stood up from the Spirit Spring Pool, her gaze swept over the stone platforms and wooden shelves that had been mostly cleared away. A slight ripple of emotion welled up in her clear eyes as she was about to bid farewell to this time, but she did not speak. Instead, she silently tied the Biluo Sect token, which had been re-embedded with spiritual energy, back to her waist.