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

The sea breeze passed between the two, blowing the waves at the edge of the deserted island into a fine, silvery-white foam.

Xiao An concealed all her soul power fluctuations and quietly retreated several feet behind Li Hanshan, like a shadow blending into the night. Her gaze lingered on the woman in the silver veil for a moment before shifting away without asking any further questions.

Li Hanshan remained silent for a moment, weighing the three rules in his mind one by one. No sexual intercourse, no planting of forbidden substances, and only once—these conditions might be restrictions for others, but for him, as long as the woman extended the time to three days, it would be just right.

What he wanted was the cultivation boost from dual cultivation, the inversion of the source energy in the late stage of Void Refinement, and the breakthrough to Void Refinement in the shortest possible time.

"Okay," he said. "Three days it is, let's begin."

The woman stood in mid-air, the edge of her silver-white veil fluttering slightly in the sea breeze: "I need you to show me something tangible first. Empty promises of cooperation offer me no guarantee."

Li Hanshan crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on her calm eyes. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "That won't do. What if she denies it later?"

"Don't even mention the Heavenly Dao Oath. For the Heavenly Demon Sect, this is not an insurmountable problem. When you made the oath just now, I was thinking that with your cultivation and methods, if you really wanted to bypass the constraints of the oath, you might not be unable to find a way."

The woman did not refute. She merely tilted her head slightly, her calm eyes gleaming with a faint, cold light in the moonlight, like a deep pool rippled by the wind and then calmed again. After a moment, she spoke, her voice still clear and cold: "I won't wait until then. As long as you learn how to set up a teleportation array from Elder Gong, I will give you my body. This is the premise of cooperation, and also the condition I agreed to."

When Li Hanshan heard the words "teleportation array," his heart skipped a beat. The woman had clearly taken his earlier speculation in its entirety and set extremely specific conditions. She didn't want him to make empty promises or state his position first; she only needed one thing—Elder Gong's core knowledge about setting up teleportation arrays.

"Even if I set up the teleportation array," Li Hanshan took half a step forward, looking directly at her, "how will you convince the higher-ups of the Immortal Alliance? They won't believe a rogue cultivator of unknown origin saying, 'I set up a teleportation array within the Heavenly Demon Sect's territory. The Immortal Alliance's decision-makers are more cautious than you think."

The woman stood in the moonlight, her eyes curving slightly beneath her silver veil. She said calmly, "That's my business. You only need to set up the formation; I'll handle the rest."

Li Hanshan stared at her for a couple of moments, then suddenly spoke: "You tampered with the Flowing Light Array, didn't you?"

The air fell silent for a moment. The woman did not deny it. She nodded slightly, the movement so light it almost blended into the motion of her veil in the wind, but Li Hanshan noticed it.

He said, "Aren't you afraid Elder Gong will suspect you by doing this?"

The woman said, "I did this only to make the Heavenly Demon Sect believe that I am still their spy. If the Flowing Light Array is normal and the Immortal Alliance is peaceful, the Heavenly Demon Sect will suspect that I have sided with the Immortal Alliance. Only by causing chaos within the Immortal Alliance will the Heavenly Demon Sect continue to trust me, so that I can expose their lifeline to the Immortal Alliance at the critical moment."

Li Hanshan remained silent for a moment. He understood the logic in her words—she was indeed playing a very large game, and one that had been going on for many years. The anomaly of the Flowing Light Array was merely one of the pieces she used to maintain her dual identity; her true target had always been the Heavenly Demon Sect.

"Where's Zhao Yuan?" he asked. "Is he one of your men?"

The woman shook her head: "No. Zhao Yuan is probably a pawn of the Hehuan Sect. The Hehuan Sect also has spies within the Immortal Alliance. Their plans within the Immortal Alliance started earlier and are more in-depth than I imagined. But I'm still not sure who is directing him. My intelligence network is mainly focused on the Heavenly Demon Sect, and I haven't had much contact with the Hehuan Sect."

Zhao Yuan is a member of the Hehuan Sect, but those behind him are not necessarily people he has access to.

The woman's words confirmed some of Li Hanshan's guesses.

From this perspective, it's clear that the Hehuan Sect had planted a spy, yet they still sent him to gather information. This mission was specifically aimed at Li Hanshan!

The Elders want him dead!

Li Hanshan's gaze turned cold.

"I've said what I needed to say." The woman stood in the moonlight, the edges of her silver veil gleaming with a cool light. Her gaze returned to Li Hanshan's face, her voice a few decibels lower than before. "Now it's your turn. Give me an answer as to whether you're willing to cooperate."

Li Hanshan did not answer immediately. He turned around, facing the slowly receding tide, and his pure Yang energy circulated gently through his meridians. He was weighing the pros and cons of this matter in his mind.

For him, the best-case scenario is actually that the Immortal Alliance and the Demonic Sect continue their standoff. He needs time to develop steadily in the cracks, and he needs female cultivators with sufficiently high cultivation levels to help him break through to the Void Refinement stage. Once the Immortal Alliance and the Demonic Sect go to war in full force, no matter which side wins, it won't be good for him.

But he didn't need much time. He was already at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, only one step away from the Void Refinement stage.

If he could cultivate with this woman in the late stage of the Void Refinement realm for three days and three nights, he would be extremely confident in breaking through that threshold.

Once he breaks through to the Void Refinement stage, he can return to the Joyful Union Sect and use his pure Yang energy to help the sect leader attempt to reach the Dao Integration stage.

The sect leader has been stuck at the peak of the Void Refinement stage for many years, lacking only that final burst of Yin-Yang harmony. If she could break through to the Dao Integration stage, even if the Dao Integration cultivators of the Heavenly Demon Sect were killed, there would still be three Dao Integration cultivators in the Central Continent, enough to form a new balance of power with the Immortal Alliance.

However, a Dao-Merging cultivator is not so easy to kill. What the woman wants is likely to destroy the Heavenly Demon Sect, not necessarily to kill that Dao-Merging cultivator.

With the destruction of the Heavenly Demon Sect, the Demon Sect's strength has been greatly reduced, but a new Dao Integration Realm cultivator has emerged. Four Dao Integration Realm cultivators are enough to make the Immortal Alliance wary, and the war might actually come to an end.

Therefore, after thinking it over, Li Hanshan felt that perhaps it was a good thing that the Heavenly Demon Sect was destroyed!

Otherwise, if Li Hanshan really helps the sect leader break through to the Void Refinement stage, the Demonic Sect's strength will increase significantly, and they might even launch an attack on the Immortal Alliance.

"Okay, I'll cooperate." After careful consideration, Li Hanshan agreed.

No matter how things develop in the future, his most important task now is to break through to the Void Refinement stage. Even though he is at the peak of the Divine Transformation stage and has the Yang Book, it won't be easy for him to break through.

Even with Shen Yun and Lin Qingyin, both at the Void Refinement stage, cultivating with him, he was still somewhat lacking in strength when trying to break through to the final level, and might get stuck at the bottleneck of the Void Refinement stage forever.

But with this mysterious woman at the late stage of the Void Refinement realm, Li Hanshan was confident he could break through in one fell swoop.

"However, you just said you wanted to learn how to set up a teleportation array from Elder Gong. I can't control the timing of that. Setting up a teleportation array is the core inheritance of the Array Hall. Even if Elder Gong trusts me a lot, he can't possibly teach me all his secrets right away."

The woman nodded slightly, the edge of her silver veil fluttering gently in the night breeze: "I know, so I'm giving you time. But let me make this clear from the start: if you can't produce satisfactory progress within a year, this matter will be called off."

"A year?" Li Hanshan raised an eyebrow. "Setting up an array of this level, like an inter-domain teleportation array, would probably take a year to even get close to the basics. Elder Gong still has a lot of things to deal with, and I can't possibly devote all my energy to this."

"Then three years it will be." The woman's tone was calm. "Within three years, you must learn the complete method of setting up a teleportation array from Elder Gong. If you learn it, I will keep my promise. If you don't, we will go our separate ways."

"Alright." Li Hanshan finally spoke, "I promise you. Within three years, I will learn how to set up a teleportation array from Elder Gong."

The woman took out a dark silver communication stone from her sleeve and flicked it lightly. The stone traced a silvery-white arc and landed precisely in Li Hanshan's palm. It felt slightly cool to the touch, and its surface was covered with a very faint layer of spiritual energy patterns, containing an extremely hidden spatial mark. This was completely different from the Immortal Alliance's regular communication talismans, clearly indicating a more ancient system.

"Crush it, and I'll be able to sense your location." The woman withdrew her hand, her silver veil fluttering gently in the night breeze. "See you in three years." She turned around, her silver robes billowing like wings in the moonlight, her figure beginning to become translucent.

"Wait a minute," Li Hanshan called out to her, "What's your name?"

The woman paused slightly in mid-air. She turned half her face to the side, and moonlight fell on the edge of her silvery-white veil, making the thin fabric almost transparent, revealing a faint smile behind it. The smile was extremely faint, like the first crack of a night-blooming cereus unfolding in the darkness.

"You can call me Hidden Moon."

As the words fell, the silver-white figure vanished completely into the night like moonlight scattered by the wind, leaving not a trace. Only the surging waves and the lingering, slowly dissipating gloom of the storm clouds remained on the sea. Moonlight spilled onto the broken waves, dyeing the entire sea a flowing silver-white.

Hidden moon?

I don't know if it's a real name or a pseudonym.

Li Hanshan stood above the deserted island, glanced down at the dark silver communication stone in his palm, and stored it deep within his storage ring. Xiao An floated up from behind, her eerie green eyes thoughtful: "Senior, is this person trustworthy?"

"Not trustworthy for now." Li Hanshan withdrew his gaze and looked in the direction where the silver-white figure had disappeared. "But she has what she wants, and I have what I need. The temporary cooperation is beneficial to both parties, and that's enough. As for the future—we'll take it one step at a time."

Xiao An didn't ask any more questions, transforming into a dark blue light and merging into the depths of his consciousness. Li Hanshan then flew down and collected the corpse of the Thousand-Eyed Sea Demon Spider; a Void Refinement level demon beast, its corpse was a priceless treasure.