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

A silver-white flying boat hovered above Poseidon Island, as the sunset slowly sank below the horizon.

Li Hanshan stood at the bow of the boat, and before he could order the flying boat to descend, commotion arose on the sea.

"Whoosh—"

The sea, spanning dozens of miles, suddenly bulged, as if a mountain were rising from the seabed. Waves spread out in all directions, creating walls of water tens of feet high. Then, a huge head burst out of the water, its neck as thick as a mountain rising higher and higher until it was level with the flying boat in mid-air.

The giant tortoise straightened its head.

Li Hanshan's pupils suddenly contracted.

The moment his divine sense touched that head, it was as if he had struck a bottomless abyss—the aura was powerful, vast, and unfathomable, far beyond the Nascent Soul stage. This was the Void Refinement stage. And not just the initial Void Refinement stage, but at least the mid-stage!

"It's only been a few years..." Li Hanshan couldn't help but murmur.

When it left Seagod Island, this giant tortoise had to rely on its massive body to fight against a fifth-tier sea beast, and was bitten on the neck by a three-headed giant snake, causing it to spit blood. Now, as it stands there, half of the endless sea seems to rise and fall with its breath.

The next second, the giant tortoise's two dark golden eyes, each as large as a house, locked onto the figure in black robes at the bow of the ship.

Those eyes were initially blank, then suddenly lit up.

"hold head high--!!!"

A deep, almost joyful cry boomed out, sending countless tiny splashes of water flying across the sea for miles around. The giant turtle excitedly shook its head, its neck churning up towering waves, making the entire sea look like a cauldron being stirred by a giant hand. It even lowered its head and, with its terrifyingly large head, carefully and gently touched the gunwale of the flying boat—like a large dog begging for a reward.

The airship was rocked three times by the impact.

"Alright, alright." Li Hanshan chuckled, lightly touched the ground with his toes, and gracefully landed on the island on the turtle's back. "Stop pushing, or the boat will capsize."

Yinyue's silver-white figure then landed. As she landed, she glanced at the giant tortoise—a Void Refinement level demonic beast, one of the few even in the Heavenly Demon Sect's secret files. Yet this tortoise possessed a pure and profound aura, devoid of any ferocity, instead exuding an almost clumsy docility.

This gentleness is reserved for only one person.

A large number of people had already poured onto the island.

"Senior Hanshan?!"

A figure came rushing from between the stone houses. It was Ayan—the boy who used to be as skinny as a monkey, his legs trembling as he held a wooden stick, had now grown into a broad-shouldered young man, his short clothes taut with muscles. He ran fast and fast, almost leaping over the last few steps, grinning, his eyes bloodshot.

"It really is you! I knew it was you! But my sister wouldn't believe me—"

"Ayan".

A-Ling followed behind, her steps unhurried, but her eyes were fixed on Li Hanshan. More than a decade had passed, and she had become even more composed. She wore a coarse cloth dress with the cuffs rolled up, and she still carried her usual iron fork in her hand—only now that iron fork felt as light as a chopstick in her hand.

Uncle Liu arrived with several divine generals. This old divine general was even more robust than before, and molten iron seemed to flow beneath his grayish-blue skin. With each step he took, the ground sank slightly.

A round of reminiscing went without saying. Ayan talked nonstop, from the spirit fields on the island to the newly built stone house, from the fishing season at the seaside to Uncle Liu smashing the skull of a fifth-tier sea beast with a single punch last month. Li Hanshan listened, but his divine sense had already scanned the entire island, and he nodded inwardly.

None of these people had ever truly cultivated immortality; they practiced the body cultivation path he had extracted from the "Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique." But now, A-Ling's blood and qi were as powerful as a furnace, and her bones and muscles throbbed, making her equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator; A-Yan was slightly less advanced, but he had also touched the threshold of the peak of the Golden Core stage; Uncle Liu was the most profound, with his physique approaching that of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

This speed isn't considered fast—their cultivation time, at most, isn't that many years.

But that's already incredibly fast.

"You have no idea how powerful the Sea God has become these past few years!" Ah Yan exclaimed, spittle flying from his mouth. "Every few days, it dives into the deep sea and stays there for ten days to half a month at a time. Every time it comes back, its belly is bulging! As a result, the spiritual energy on our island has visibly increased. Sleeping at night feels like soaking in hot water, and our cultivation levels are rising rapidly! Uncle Liu said it's because the Sea God has eaten too many sea monsters, and the undigested essence is being released through its breath, nourishing everyone on the island!"

Is this giant turtle diving into the deep sea?

"What about that island?" Li Hanshan asked. Poseidon Island, the entire island is on the back of a giant tortoise.

"The sea god used the Spirit Shell Technique to make the island float on the sea for a period of time," Ayan explained.

Li Hanshan looked up and glanced at the giant in the distance that was cautiously glancing at the island.

The Void Refinement stage demonic beasts devoured Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation stage sea beasts like snacks. The energy in the essence blood of those demonic beasts that it couldn't absorb was released through its breath and shell, falling on the island and on the people on it—meaning that the entire island was soaking in the "medicinal bath" of a Void Refinement stage demonic beast day and night.

No wonder everyone on Poseidon Island is cultivating so fast.

After catching up halfway through, Li Hanshan changed the subject and got down to business.

"I'm here to spend a few days in seclusion on the island to refine a batch of pills."

This batch of pills is naturally the Fusion God Pill, which he has been preparing for a long time and is now almost ready.

In addition, there was the batch of spiritual herbs and medicines he brought out from the Yaoguang Ruins—he practically emptied half of the herb garden on that trip, filling three storage bags with herbs aged three thousand and five thousand years, which are now coming in handy.

"The place for alchemy..." Ah Ling was about to make arrangements when her expression suddenly changed.

There was some commotion on the sea.

First, a thin line of black appeared in the far distance, then that line of black rapidly thickened and darkened, like ink splashed into the sea. A roar grew louder as it approached, and the sea churned as if boiling. The next instant, countless dorsal fins, tentacles, and gigantic mouths emerged from the water—hundreds upon hundreds of monstrous beasts were charging towards Seagod Island!

There were quite a few fifth and sixth-order auras, and the leading ones were actually at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage!

"Beast Tide—!" Xiao An's soul materialized from the flying boat, his eerie blue eyes instantly sharpening, and a surge of yin energy erupted around him. "Senior, leave the protective formation to me!"

With a roar from Uncle Liu, the generals rushed towards the shore. Ah Ling grabbed a pitchfork, and Ah Yan clenched his fists.

However, the beast tide stopped abruptly when it reached a point thirty miles from the island.

Thousands of demonic beasts stood quietly in place, not even daring to make a large splash. Then, to everyone's astonishment, one after another they lowered their heads to the surface of the sea, carrying in their mouths things—demon cores, spirit ores, glowing corals, piles of underwater spirit herbs—and laid them out respectfully on the surface of the sea, forming a long, jewel-like line.

Like paying tribute.

At the forefront of the herd, a giant whale, the size of a small mountain, slowly rose to the surface. On its head, a small, fluffy, white creature crouched.

The little creature was only the size of a house cat, pure white, with a tuft of pale golden down on its forehead that shone like a small ball of fire in the setting sun. It leaped up with a "whoosh," transforming into a white light, crossing thirty miles of sea, and landing with perfect accuracy in Li Hanshan's arms.

"Eeeeeee—!"

The little animal clung tightly to his clothes with its two front paws, rubbing its little head against his chest, letting out a series of urgent and aggrieved cries, as if accusing him of "Why did you take so long to come?"

Li Hanshan held it, first smiling, then his smile gradually turned into astonishment.

His hand rested on the small beast's back, its aura gentle, harmonious, and unfathomable—a Void Refinement stage. This little thing had actually reached the Void Refinement stage!

"Good heavens." He couldn't help but pinch the little beast's nape. "How many demon cores have you eaten while I was gone?"

"Ee!" The little beast proudly raised its chin, waved its little paw, and pointed to the long offering behind it carried by thousands of demonic beasts, as if to say, "This is all the territory I conquered."

Li Hanshan looked at the herd of beasts, then at the increasingly dazzling tuft of golden fur on the little beast's forehead. A thought struck him, and a wisp of his divine sense quietly entered.

As his divine sense reached, the little beast's blood surged like a river, and countless mysterious patterns flashed by in the golden blood energy—the patterns were so ancient that even the divine soul sword deep in his sea of ​​consciousness trembled slightly.

What surprised him even more was the reaction of the beast horde. The bowing of thousands of demonic beasts was not out of fear of the oppressive aura, but rather a subservient submission from the depths of their souls, almost like a pilgrimage. Even the giant whale at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage instinctively lowered its head even further the moment the small beast leaped up.

In the distance, the Void Refining Giant Turtle slowly turned its head.

There was no hostility in those enormous, dark golden eyes, only a cautious gaze, almost like that of a fellow cultivator—the gaze of one Void Refinement Great Demon upon another. Yet even within that gaze, there was a faint, inexplicable sense of apprehension.

Li Hanshan looked down at the little thing in his arms, who was acting cute and rolling around in his arms without any awareness of her own feelings, and seemed to be deep in thought.

This little beast was ridiculously strong back in the Northern Wilderness, and now that it has reached the Void Refinement stage, the "extraordinary" quality in its bloodline can no longer be hidden.

"What bloodline are you...?"

"Ee?" The little beast tilted its head, its dark eyes filled with pure innocence.

At the bow of the flying boat, Yin Yue took in the entire scene, and for the first time, a clear shock appeared in her usually cold eyes.

The giant tortoise guarding the island in the Void Refinement Realm. The treasure-hunting beasts in the Void Refinement Realm. A horde of beasts, so formidable they could sway an army in their tribute.

How many cards does this man still have up his sleeve?