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

The battle between Li Hanshan and Zhou Heng raged from the valley to the dense forest, from the dense forest to the mountain peak, and then back to the ruins that had been cleaved in two by the Crimson Sun Sword.

Wherever the two passed, spiritual trees snapped in pieces, rocks crumbled like rain, and the ground cracked open with bottomless ravines. Some cracks even seeped out scorching spiritual energy from the depths of the earth, which evaporated into fine golden mist in the air.

The spiritual energy blockade net that Zhou Heng had laid out was repeatedly torn apart and repaired; the pillar of light rose from the ground only to be severed by the sword light; the broken fragments of spiritual energy drifted slowly down across the entire secret realm like stardust blown by the wind. When those fragments landed on the spirit trees, they would explode into a cloud of fine light mist; when they landed on the water, they would stir up rapid ripples, causing the originally docile spirit spring water in the secret realm to surge and churn.

Zhou Heng's methods were indeed astonishing. In addition to those pillars and spheres of spiritual energy, he also took out several jet-black beast bones from his storage ring. Each beast bone shattered in his palm and transformed into a huge dark gray puppet beast.

Although the puppet beasts were only at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, their bodies were extremely tough. They charged around the battlefield, making it much more difficult for Li Hanshan to dodge. He also cast several strange dark gray talismans, each of which could tear open several spatial rifts in the void. These rifts hung in mid-air like wounds cut open by a sharp blade, with fine silver light surging at their edges. Any object that touched the edge of the rift would be instantly shredded.

But Li Hanshan blocked them all.

His Fire Shadow Steps weaved through the cracks, the eerie blue light of his broken sword precisely severing the core nodes of each puppet beast, while his pure Yang fire burned away the remaining dark gray talismans. Each time he was repelled, he would regroup his spiritual power as he retreated, and each time he charged forward again, he would have an even more precise angle of attack.

Zhou Heng's brows furrowed even more deeply. He retreated to the center of the array of light pillars, his hand seals moving even faster than before. Dozens of light pillars lit up simultaneously, enveloping the space within a radius of several miles. The light pillars intertwined on the ground to form a dense net, connected to each other by dark gray spiritual energy threads, the surface of which was covered with fine runes.

Zhou Heng poured all his remaining spiritual power into the array eye beneath his feet. Dozens of beams of light simultaneously lit up with a dazzling dark gray light. Those beams of light converged into a beam of light as thick as a water vat, which shot into the sky from the center of the array eye. Carrying the remaining spiritual power around Zhou Heng and the power of heaven and earth forcibly drawn from the earth veins, it transformed into a destructive beam of light that was enough to destroy half of the secret realm.

Before the beam of light even landed, countless cracks appeared on the ground, spreading in all directions like a spider web, each one deep enough to see bone.

The spatial barrier at the edge of the secret realm trembled violently under the impact of the aftershock, and the golden runes on the surface of the barrier flickered wildly, like a candle in the wind. He Yuan and his two disciples, who were hiding in the tree canopy in the distance, were almost suffocating under the pressure of that aura. The image on the telescope shook violently and almost slipped from He Yuan's hand.

Li Hanshan looked up at the dark gray pillar of light that was gathering, holding his broken sword upright in front of him. He could also feel the terrifying weight of that deadly attack. But he did not retreat.

Instead, he felt a distinct sense of exhilaration rising within him.

Because he sensed that the long-standing barrier was loosening under that pressure. This loosening wasn't forced open by external force, but rather gradually thinned out naturally as he was pushed to his limit and then recovered during this continuous battle that lasted nine days and nine nights.

He never intended to use the Crimson Sun Sword to finish the battle quickly.

While Dao artifacts are powerful, they are ultimately external objects. What he needs is to truly break through that threshold through his own strength. He needs a sufficiently arduous battle, a sufficiently formidable opponent, to push him to his limits. And Zhou Heng happens to be that whetstone.

Zhou Heng finally understood his purpose.

"Are you using me as a whetstone?" Zhou Heng's voice carried a genuine sense of frustration for the first time. He stared intently at Li Hanshan, the anger in his eyes shattering layer by layer, revealing an almost absurd helplessness beneath.

He was, after all, a secret agent of the Hehuan Sect who had been lurking in the Immortal Alliance for a thousand years. With his cultivation at the mid-stage of the Void Refinement Realm, he would be an elder-level combatant in any sect. Yet, he was being used as a whetstone.

"Yes." Li Hanshan did not deny it.

Zhou Heng's lips pressed into a thin line. Countless methods surged in his mind: talismans, pills, cultivation techniques, trump cards—but all of them had been exhausted in these nine days. The young man he faced had not only survived the exhaustion, but had also visibly improved his combat abilities during this protracted and arduous battle.

His combat talent was astonishing enough, but what was even more deadly was that his spiritual energy reserves far exceeded the limits of ordinary peak Nascent Soul cultivators. Every time he thought Li Hanshan was about to give up, the other would stand up again and use his exquisite footwork and swordsmanship to tear apart the blockade formation that he had painstakingly set up.

Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and poured the last bit of spiritual energy in his body into the pillar of light. He knew he had no way out; Li Hanshan wouldn't let him go, nor would Yin Yue. If he didn't die, he would die.

As the beam of light fell, the entire secret realm fell into a brief silence.

Li Hanshan gripped the broken sword tightly and closed his eyes.

He sensed the sword intent deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, which had been repeatedly tempered for hundreds of years. It was comprehended from the sword intent of the woman wielding a sword in his dream, and refined from the ancient sword energy in the chasm. It was different from the "burning" of pure yang fire, and also completely different from the "erosion" of Zhou Heng's dark gray spells.

That sword intent was pure and simple; the sword would cut instantly upon being drawn.

Li Hanshan raised his hand, and the broken sword slashed down. A dark blue sword light pierced through the front of the pillar of light, splitting it in two from the middle, and continued its momentum towards Zhou Heng's location.

Zhou Heng froze in the sword light, like a painting splashed with ink. The ink spread outwards from the center, turning his figure, his expression, and his last moment of unwillingness into a blurry gray.

The beam of light shattered.

Zhou Heng also disappeared.

Under Li Hanshan's sword strike, he was instantly vaporized, leaving not even a trace behind.