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

On the other side, Yin Yue had already approached the sword qi ravine.

The sword energy numbered in the billions, so transparent as to be almost invisible, intertwining between heaven and earth, stretching from the horizon where the sea met the sky to the end of the field of vision. Wherever the sword energy passed, the clouds were shredded into fluff, and the waves were pulverized.

Further on, the sea appeared to be cleaved in two—towering walls of waves rose like cliffs on either side, while a deep, bottomless chasm ran through the middle, its smooth surface like a mirror, stretching from the horizon to the very edge. Sunlight shone on the split walls, refracting a cold, bluish light that made the entire sea resemble a shattered mirror.

The power of a single sword strike has been unmatched for millennia.

Yin Yue only extended her divine sense slightly.

"laugh--"

That wisp of divine sense couldn't even extend ten feet before it was pulverized by an invisible sharpness. She let out a muffled groan, her fingertips trembling slightly—her divine sense at the late stage of the Void Refinement realm was like a hair falling into a millstone before that white mist.

This is not the window of opportunity.

During the window of opportunity, those below the Nascent Soul stage have no chance of passing through here, and even those at the Void Refinement stage would find it difficult to pass through outside of that window.

"Fallen Cherry Blossom! Do you dare to enter this sword aura?!" she shouted towards the way she came. "If you dare not! Then this younger sister will not be polite—this is our farewell, never to be seen again!"

As soon as she finished speaking, her body surged with crimson light, and she plunged headlong into the sword energy.

"She's gone in." Xiao An's voice was tense. "Senior, we..."

"Let's go in too," Li Hanshan said.

Yin Yue whirled around, staring at him. "That's something that can even shred divine consciousness. Are you insane?"

"Trying to force your way in is suicide. Sword energy is inanimate, but sword intent is alive." Li Hanshan gazed at the white mist. "I spent two hours in this sword energy. Back then, I only had the cultivation of a Nascent Soul cultivator, and I couldn't even touch its threshold—but not being able to touch it doesn't mean I can't remember it."

He didn't say the real reason. The real reason was that in his dream, he seemed to have encountered the owner of the sword energy. Over the years, he had often fought with her in his dreams and had become very familiar with the sword intent.

He took a step forward, his body devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations. Deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, the divine soul sword, forged over many years, suddenly trembled on its own.

It felt like hearing from an old friend.

The sky full of sword energy suddenly froze.

"Stay close to me. Step where I've stepped. Don't use your spiritual sense, don't use your internal energy to resist—the sword intent detests the desire for conflict. If you act as if it doesn't exist, it will treat you like a roadside stone."

After saying that, he stepped into the vast expanse of sword energy capable of shattering even the most powerful cultivators.

Yin Yue followed her inside.

Then, she saw a sight she had never seen before in her life.

Countless strands of sword energy brushed past her cheeks, hair, and the hem of her clothes, so close that she could "hear" the sharp sound of each strand cutting through the void, yet not a single one landed on her. They flowed around Li Hanshan, like a tide bypassing reefs—no, not bypassing. Every step he took landed precisely in the gaps between the flowing sword energy, as if stepping to the rhythm of a silent ancient melody.

He didn't draw his sword, didn't raise a shield, and didn't even let his spiritual energy flow across his body. He just walked, calmly and skillfully, as if walking on a path in his own backyard.

It shatters upon contact, obliterating both body and soul! The stories about this sword energy in the Central Continent became a joke in front of this man at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.

She had cultivated demonic arts for a thousand years, witnessed the most valiant swordsmen in the sect, and seen the demonic flames in her father's sleeve that seemed to weigh down half the sky. But all those "strong" figures were insignificant before this sword aura. And he was the only exception among these billions of sword energies.

Yin Yue suddenly realized that although she had been intimately entangled with him, she actually knew nothing about this man's background. Northern Wilderness, Spirit Boat, two hours—every word he uttered so casually was an experience that others wouldn't even dare to imagine.

"What are you thinking about?" Li Hanshan asked without turning around, his voice cutting through the sharp whistle and landing steadily in her ear, "If you take one wrong step, I might not be able to get you back."

Yin Yue snapped out of her daze, gritted her teeth, and followed his footprints step by step into the room.

Xiao An clung to Li Hanshan's shadow. Her soul was inherently vulnerable to sword energy, making her the most fragile of the three. Li Hanshan held the Divine Soul Sword three inches in front of her; the sword hummed softly, subtly harmonizing with the boundless sword energy. The countless sharp blades parted like a tide, just wide enough for her to pass through.

Before an incense stick could burn, the three emerged from the other side of the sword aura.

Her clothes were not torn, and her hair was not disheveled.

On the other side, however, a completely different scene is unfolding.

Ye Feiyan struggled within the sword energy.

The protective aura of blood was peeled away layer by layer, and her bright red palace dress was torn into strips. With each step forward, fine bloodstains bloomed on her body. She dared not cry out—the sword energy moved at the slightest breeze, and she had to swallow even her cries of pain, letting cold sweat mixed with blood flow into her eyes.

She thought things would get better once she got through the thinnest part, but the deeper she went, the more violent the sword energy became. This round of sword energy was definitely not within the "mild" period recorded in the secret files.

Nearly an hour later, the blood-red light finally burst out from the other end of the sword energy, crashing heavily into the sea and stirring up a blood-red wave.

Ye Feiyan flew up and landed on a reef, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Her bare arms were covered with deep, bone-revealing sword wounds. Yet she was laughing—laughing until tears streamed down her face.

They've made it through.

She walked right through that sword aura that only those who had attained the Dao could pass through! Luo Hongying, Li Hanshan, and that ghostly blue figure were all left behind on the other side of the sword aura!

From here on, the world is vast, and no one can reach it again—

She braced herself against the rocks, slowly raising her head inch by inch.

Then, her smile froze on her face.

On the sea ahead, three figures stood on the waves.

Li Hanshan, clad in black robes and carrying a sword, and Yin Yue, with her long, silver-white hair, stood in the air, accompanied by a faintly glowing blue soul shadow. A storm roared on the horizon behind them, and white, misty sword energy whistled in the distance, yet they stood there quietly, their clothes untorn, their hair perfectly styled, as if they had been waiting for her for a very, very long time.

"...Impossible." Ye Feiyan's voice trembled violently. "That sword energy...that sword energy could even shred divine sense! Even I had to peel off a layer of skin just to get through—you, how did you find the way?!"

"You think you're the only one who knows the shortcut?"

Li Hanshan looked at her with a smile, raised his hand, and pointed to the white ribbon that stretched across the sky and earth in the distance.

"I'm more familiar with that sword energy than you are."

He spoke of it casually, as if crossing a ravine of sword energy was no different than wading through a small stream.

Ye Feiyan slowly turned her head.

To the left, in the sea mist, Xiao An stood barefoot on the crest of a wave, her eerie green eyes silently watching her, as if looking at a dead person. To the right, a silver-white beam of light returned from the edge of the sword energy, and Yin Yue stood within the beam, her long hair fluttering slowly in the gale, looking down at her from above.

three directions.

Ahead, Li Hanshan. To her left, Xiao An. Behind her, an endless, raging black sea, where no one would shield her from the wind.

Blood Escape Talisman, gone. Teleportation Talisman, gone. Spiritual power, less than one-tenth remaining.

There is no escape.

She suddenly smiled. That smile slowly returned to her beautiful face, sweet and gentle, just like countless times before. She even raised her hand to gather her disheveled long hair, her posture graceful, as if it were someone else, not her, trapped in a dead end.

"Little brother," she said, her voice soft and sweet, with just the right amount of grievance, "you scared me. These past few months, I've been so bothered by you guys chasing me... Why don't we all sit down, have some hot tea, and have a proper talk?"

Li Hanshan remained silent.

Yin Yue's escape light pressed forward thirty feet. She looked down at that smiling face from above, her clear, cold eyes reflecting the storm, the sword light, and everything that had been burned away over the past three months.

"Run," she whispered.

"Why—have you stopped running?"