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

Yin Yue's cheeks flushed instantly. The blush spread from her ears to her neck, and then from her neck to the edge of her veil, enveloping her entire face in a warm, gentle color.

She opened her mouth, as if to refute something, or perhaps to use the three rules to shut him up, but found that what he said was indeed within the rules. He only said "enjoyment," not "sexual exploitation," so the first rule of the three rules, "no excessive sexual exploitation," did not apply to this statement at all.

She looked away, her gaze falling on the barrier light membrane at the entrance to the stone chamber, which was slowly repairing. Her voice was so low it was almost drowned out by the sound of the spiritual spring: "If you can really solve it, it will only take one night at most."

Looking at her, Li Hanshan's smile deepened, but he didn't press her any further. Instead, he took out a silver jade slip from his sleeve, placed it on the stone platform, and pushed it toward her.

Yin Yue's gaze fell on the jade slip, and she paused slightly. She reached out and picked up the jade slip, probing it with her divine sense. A moment later, her body suddenly stiffened.

The contents recorded in the jade slip were very brief—the connection of the teleportation array had been completed, the spiritual energy loops of the twelve array artifacts had formed a complete closed loop, the coordinates of the array eyes at both ends had been locked, and the channel had been stably established.

All that remains is the final step of officially opening the passage. The reason this step hasn't been completed yet is that the timing for her to attract attention from the outside is still uncertain.

In other words, they no longer need to wait, nor do they need to hide it anymore.

"When did this happen?" She looked up, her calm eyes filled with disbelief and shock.

"When Ye Feiyan attacked the barrier," Li Hanshan sat down again by the stone platform, his tone as calm as if he were talking about a trivial matter that had already passed, "the vibrations from the broken barrier reached the Heavenly Demon Blood Array, drawing the array's attention to this mountain peak. I took the opportunity to activate the core of the teleportation array."

Yin Yue's fingers tightened slightly as she held the jade slip. She stared at him for several breaths, her lips beneath the silver veil parting slightly, like a window being opened a crack by the wind.

She remained silent for a long time before speaking, her voice tinged with a hint of dissatisfaction: "So, what you just said was a joke?"

Li Hanshan leaned against the stone wall and said calmly, "Not entirely. The way you looked just now, as if you couldn't find a solution, did make me want to see you get anxious."

"Also, don't forget about the one night you mentioned," Li Hanshan quickly added.

Yin Yue stared at him for a couple of moments. There was a hint of helplessness in her eyes, but beneath that helplessness, there was a very faint sense of relaxation that even she herself might not have noticed.

Her shoulder line loosened slightly by half an inch at that moment, like a string that had been stretched for too long finally being tuned back to its normal tension.

She put the jade slip into her sleeve, sat down again by the stone platform, picked up the cup of spirit tea that had completely cooled down, and drank it all in one gulp.

Li Hanshan sat down by the stone platform: "When will it be started?"

Yin Yue put the jade slip into her sleeve and sat down again by the stone platform. She set down her teacup a few moments slower than before, her gaze sweeping over the surfaces of the twelve array artifacts on the stone chamber floor, as if making a final check. After a moment, she spoke, "Wait a minute."

Li Hanshan's brows twitched slightly. Yin Yue didn't rush to explain, but simply took something out of her sleeve and placed it on the stone platform.

It was a conch about the size of a palm, dark silver in color, with an extremely fine silver-white pattern flowing across its surface. The pattern was unlike any runes he had ever seen in the Flowing Light Array and Teleportation Array, like the natural arcs formed by the edge of a seashell that had been washed by seawater for millions of years, carrying a sense of natural rhythm.

A silver-white bead, the size of a fingernail, is embedded at the opening of the conch shell. The surface of the bead shimmers with an extremely warm luster, and under the cool light of the luminous pearl, it has a clear texture like the moonlight in the deep sea.

Yin Yue picked up the conch shell and placed it to her lips. She didn't blow it, but instead channeled her spiritual energy into the silvery-white bead at the conch's opening.

Driven by spiritual energy, the bead shone with a warm silver light. The light slowly traveled along the patterns on the surface of the shell, and then a very faint ripple of spiritual energy appeared at the opening of the shell, like the ripples on the surface of a stone thrown into a deep pool.

A long and clear sound emanated from the conch shell. The sound was not loud, but it had a strange penetrating power, spreading out in the far distance, like the sound of the tide carried by the sea breeze spreading across the boundless sea.

"This is a communication conch." Yin Yue placed the conch back on the stone platform, her calm eyes beneath the silver veil fixed on the slowly receding light on the conch's surface. "A magical artifact of the sea race. Faster than a communication talisman, it can transmit a message to the other end within a few breaths, no matter how far apart they are. Silver Bell gave it to me."

The magical artifacts of the sea tribe. Li Hanshan recalled what Yinling had said: the sea tribe had once been the rulers of the entire endless sea, and those magical artifacts were among the last relics she had brought out from the sea tribe's legacy. He didn't ask for more details about the sound-transmitting conch shell, because the air in the stone chamber suddenly changed at that moment.

The ground beneath his feet trembled slightly. This tremor was unlike any he had ever sensed before; it did not originate from the depths of the earth's veins, nor from the aftershocks of the Heavenly Demon Blood Array. The tremor surged from all directions simultaneously, seeping from the rock walls of the stone chamber, from the dome of the cave, and from the depths of the ground beneath his feet, covered in dark blue-green rock.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across every corner of the stone chamber. He discovered that the previously quietly operating restriction array patterns were retreating outwards at an extremely slow pace, as if being squeezed from the outside by some force, gradually giving up the space they originally occupied.

The next second, everything in sight suddenly changed. The light from the rock walls, the array patterns, and the luminous pearls seemed to be covered by a thin film of water, which was then gently peeled away from the outside. An extremely warm, silvery-white light poured in from all directions, dyeing the entire stone chamber a clear hue like a moonlit night in the deep sea.

Li Hanshan felt the ground beneath his feet become soft and elastic, as if he were stepping on a seabed reef that had been soaked in seawater for millions of years.

He looked down and saw that the dark blue rocks beneath his feet were gone, replaced by a flat area covered with fine, silvery-white sand. Occasionally, tiny phosphorescent lights flickered among the sand grains, like scattered stars on the seabed.

The surrounding scenery had completely changed. The stone chamber had vanished, the cave walls had disappeared, and even the dark red sky above, shrouded by the Heavenly Demon Blood Array, had vanished.

Instead, there was an endless expanse of silvery-white sea, with a thin layer of spiritual mist floating on the surface. The mist shimmered with a warm, silvery-white light in the moonlight.

Above the sea was a small island. The island was about several miles in circumference and covered with thick, silvery-white vegetation. The leaves of the plants had a translucent texture and shimmered with fine silver veins under the moonlight, which was extremely similar to a kind of spiritual algae he had seen in the deep-sea corals.

The air was filled with an extremely crisp sea breeze, mixed with the delicate herbal fragrance emanating from the silvery-white vegetation. When inhaled, it felt as if even the demonic and turbid energy that had accumulated in the meridians for too long was washed away.

Li Hanshan stood on the silvery-white beach, sensing the spiritual energy environment of this space. The space was extremely stable, and the concentration of spiritual energy was different from any place he had been before. The pure water-type spiritual energy was so rich that it was almost tangible, and every breath carried a warm and moist texture as if it had been soaked in spring water.

But what caught his attention most was the source of spiritual energy in this space. It wasn't spiritual energy drawn from the earth's veins, nor was it spiritual energy gathered through an array; it seemed to seep out from the sea itself. It was as if the spiritual energy of the entire endless sea was converging on this small island, yet it was constrained within a certain range by some extremely sophisticated array.

"It feels so real."

Li Hanshan naturally knew that he and Yinyue had not come here in their true forms, but rather their souls had been brought here, like an illusion.

Yin Yue stood beside him, her silver-white veil fluttering gently in the sea breeze, the edges of her silver-white robe billowing slightly in the wind. She tucked the communication conch back into her sleeve, her gaze fixed on the top of the tallest silver-white tree in the center of the island.

Li Hanshan followed her gaze. The giant tree was about ten zhang tall, its canopy resembling a giant, open silver umbrella, its leaves shimmering with a fine, silvery-white halo in the moonlight. At the very top of the tree's canopy, a silver-white figure stood on the highest branch, her long silver-white dress billowing like wings in the sea breeze, her silver-gray eyes gleaming with a clear, luminous light in the moonlight.

Silver Bell. The last princess of the sea tribe.

She stood atop the giant tree, her gaze shifting from the distant sea to the two figures on the beach. The sea breeze swept past her, whipping her long hair back, and her cool yet gentle face, bathed in moonlight, resembled an ancient painting meticulously crafted.

"You're here." Her voice came from the top of the treetop, clear and gentle, as if whispering in your ear even though it was dozens of feet away. "Come up."

Yin Yue glanced at Li Hanshan, then strode towards the giant tree. Li Hanshan followed behind, his footsteps treading on the silvery-white sand. With each step, a fine, silvery-white phosphorescence would ripple from his feet, like tiny ripples spreading across the surface of water after a drop of dew had been placed on it.

As the two walked through the silvery-white vegetation and reached the foot of the giant tree, Yinling gracefully descended from the top of the canopy, her silvery-white skirt tracing a very light arc in mid-air before landing in front of them.