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

Yin Yue's movements stopped the moment Li Hanshan finished speaking.

She stood on the boulder, her silver veil fluttering gently in the morning breeze. Her calm eyes rested on his face, and the boundary between moonlight and morning light reflected off the edge of her veil, making the fine silver patterns appear like a frozen stream.

"Here?" she finally spoke, her voice cold and clear. Moonlight fell on the tips of her ears, revealing a faint blush that spread down from the tips of her ears and disappeared into the edge of her silver-white collar.

Li Hanshan nodded, his tone frank: "Right here. Three months has already wasted a lot of time. The secret realm is stable, and with the array I set up outside to conceal it, no one will disturb us."

Yin Yue remained silent for two breaths, her eyes, hidden beneath her silver veil, drooped slightly, landing on the gravel at her feet.

"How can we do this in the secret realm? We can't possibly..." She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear. The boulder was surrounded by scorched earth and rubble, with not a single decent flat area, let alone any shelter.

Li Hanshan didn't reply, but instead raised his hand and took out a dark cyan magic artifact about the size of a fist from his storage ring. The artifact was oval in shape, with a layer of warm emerald green spiritual light flowing across its surface, and several extremely fine spatial runes engraved on its edges.

He infused it with spiritual power, and the magical artifact slowly spun in his palm before falling onto the flattened ruins in front of him.

The moment it landed, the emerald green light on the surface of the magical artifact surged, like a miniature courtyard that had been unsealed and slowly unfolded. After the light dissipated, a small house, about two zhang square and entirely constructed of spirit wood, appeared in the center of the ruins.

The roof of the house was covered with tiles woven from fine spiritual herbs. The door was half-open, revealing a wooden bed covered with a plain white brocade rug. An unlit dragon and phoenix candle sat at the head of the bed, and several sprigs of purple bamboo, preserved with spiritual energy, sat on the windowsill. The air was filled with the unique, refreshing fragrance of spiritual wood, blending with the original scent of plants and trees in the secret realm.

He stepped aside to clear the doorway and tilted his head slightly towards Yin Yue: "Come on in."

Yin Yue's gaze fell on the small house that had suddenly appeared in the center of the ruins, and she remained silent for a moment. The magic artifact unfolded extremely quickly, but the furnishings were not simple. The bed, windowsill, candlesticks, and even the spiritual patterns on the door frame were so exquisite that they did not look like a temporary cave dwelling.

Her lips moved beneath her silver veil, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only tilted her head slightly, shifting her gaze from the houses to the distant mountainside cleaved by the Crimson Sun Sword.

"You go in first." She spoke, her voice still steady, but the slight fluctuation of spiritual energy at the edge of her sleeve, fluttering in the wind, betrayed that she was not as composed as she appeared. "I'll be there shortly."

Li Hanshan didn't ask any questions and stepped into the house. As he sat down on the edge of the bed, he could hear very light footsteps outside, followed by the sound of the door being gently closed from the outside. Yin Yue didn't rush in when she came in. She stood inside the doorway, her back to the unlit candlestick, her silver veil revealing a cool outline in the dim light seeping in from the window cracks.

She stood there for several breaths, as if struggling with some kind of predicament. Then she raised her hand and untied the ribbon from the edge of her veil. As the silvery-white veil slipped from her face, it revealed an extremely aloof expression. Her eyes appeared even deeper than under the veil, like a deep pool bathed in moonlight, with slightly upturned corners that possessed a sharp, razor-sharp curve, yet softened by a very faint layer of red at the corners.

Her lips were pressed into a line, neither too thick nor too thin, with a naturally light color. Her jawline was clear and sharp, and she looked like a finely honed blade sheathed.

She raised her hand and untied the sash of her outer robe, which slipped off her shoulders to reveal a plain white inner garment underneath. The collar was slightly open, revealing a delicate collarbone and the lingering blush on her neck.

She didn't take another step forward, but stood in the narrow space between the threshold and the edge of the bed, her gaze fixed on the dappled sunlight filtering through the window cracks. Her voice was a few decibels lower than before, carrying a deliberately maintained calm: "I won't go back on my promise, but you need to remember the three rules I mentioned earlier."

"I won't overexert you, I won't place any restrictions on you, and it will only last three days." Li Hanshan recited the conditions calmly. "I've got it."

Yin Yue nodded slightly. She finally raised her gaze, her deep eyes meeting his for a brief moment before shifting back to the few purple bamboos on the windowsill. She slowly removed her inner garment from her shoulders, her movements as if she were repeatedly confirming whether every inch of her skin was willing to be exposed in this space condensed by his spiritual energy.

As her plain white undergarment slipped to her feet, she stood at the intersection of the morning light and the fragrance of the spiritual wood, like a scroll being slowly unfurled, every line carrying the natural arc of light that had been restrained for too long.

When Li Hanshan got up and approached, she did not back down. He could feel her back tense slightly the moment his fingers touched her shoulder, like the surface of a musical instrument vibrating in the wind, maintaining its last bit of stability.

But as his palm slowly slid down along the contours of her shoulder blades, the tension melted away layer by layer, like ice being warmed by a gentle current. It didn't crack, but rather loosened little by little from the inside.

As he gently laid her down on the brocade quilt, the morning light seeping through the window cracks fell precisely between her collarbone and chin, making that skin appear almost transparent.

Her hands rested on his shoulders, her fingertips slightly curled, as if searching for a foothold to grasp.

The moment the two were truly close, she turned her head and looked at the leaves of the few purple bamboos on the windowsill. Her breathing changed from steady to slightly rapid, and the rise and fall of her chest was like the ripples on a lake in the wind.

"Don't hide."

Without a word, Li Hanshan kissed her. Yin Yue tried to dodge, but couldn't, and was kissed squarely by Li Hanshan.

"Mmm~" she protested, but Li Hanshan ignored her protest and began to savor her cherry lips, even touching them all over, causing Yin Yue's face to turn red to her neck.

Despite having cultivated for so many years, this was her first time in matters of love, and she was no match for the experienced Li Hanshan.

The room was bathed in the glow of spring.