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

After reuniting with the little beast, Li Hanshan began refining pills.

The process of refining the elixir was even more dangerous than Li Hanshan had anticipated.

The Fusion Divine Pill, at the peak of the seventh rank, was already halfway to the eighth rank. The formula was completed by Luo Li, and the ingredients were gathered at great personal risk. But only when he actually opened the furnace did he realize that the greatest test of this batch of pills wasn't the heat, but his divine sense—the order in which the seventy-two auxiliary ingredients were added, the amount of each ingredient, and the timing of each surging of the elixir all required meticulous control with his divine sense. The slightest error would render the entire batch of pills worthless.

The first batch exploded.

The lid of the alchemy furnace was blown three zhang high, and a plume of black smoke turned Ayan, who was guarding the door, into a charcoal ball. Li Hanshan squatted in front of the furnace, staring at the pile of dregs for a long time, silently noting the reasons for the failure, and then restarted the furnace.

The second batch yielded two pills, but both were of low grade, with cloudy patterns and less than 40% medicinal power. Li Hanshan shook his head and tossed the two low-grade pills to the little beast—the little guy sniffed them disdainfully, but still ate them, letting out a billowing burp afterward.

For the third batch, he secluded himself for seven days and seven nights.

On the morning of the eighth day, the clouds above Poseidon Island suddenly and inexplicably swirled into a huge vortex. Seven-colored rays of light descended from the center of the vortex, directly over the temporary alchemy room. Everyone on the island ran out, looking up at the descending rays of light. Uncle Liu's stone lock clattered to the ground.

Inside the alchemy room, Li Hanshan slowly opened his eyes and waved his sleeve.

"open."

The furnace lid was slightly opened. Three pills, each the size of a longan, lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace. They were pure white, with swirling clouds of gold around them, and each pill was adorned with three fine golden lines—the Three-Line Pill, the finest of the fine.

In the center of the three pills lay another. This one was only the size of a fingertip, almost transparent, and its markings were not three, but nine. These nine golden lines connected end to end, faintly forming an ancient rune shape. It lay there quietly, yet it caused subtle ripples to appear in the surrounding air.

"Nine-fold Danwen..." Li Hanshan stared at the small pill, his Adam's apple bobbing.

Excellent. He mentally gave Luo Li a credit.

In half a month, the Divine Elixir was completed.

On the day the pill was completed, Li Hanshan summoned everyone.

"Ah Ling, Ah Yan, Uncle Liu." He stood in the central square of the island, with a silver-white flying boat hovering in mid-air behind him. "I will be in seclusion for the next few days to break through my current limitations. Things on the island will remain the same. Xiao An—"

"Here!" A figure in dark blue appeared gracefully.

"You will guard the outer formation. Any demonic beast or cultivator who comes within a hundred miles of Seagod Island shall be killed without exception."

"Leave it to me!" Xiao An nodded vigorously, his dark green eyes gleaming with fighting spirit.

"Eee!" The little beast jumped onto his shoulder, patted its chest with its little paws, and then cried out towards the sea. Instantly, thousands of demonic beasts silently sank into the sea, spreading out from Seagod Island to form a huge circle—this little beast at the Void Refinement stage was going to personally guard the pass for him.

As for the Void Refining Giant Turtle, it had already sunk beneath the island three days prior. Its four pillar-like limbs spread out, firmly supporting the entire Sea God Island on its back, and the array patterns on its shell lit up layer by layer—the thickest shell it had covered the island with its thousands of years of cultivation.

Li Hanshan took one last look at the lower deck of the flying boat. Inside, Ye Feiyan was huddled in a corner, hugging her knees, the spirit-locking needle on her wrist swaying gently as the flying boat hovered. She had been unusually well-behaved these past few days, and had already recited the incantation for the secret vault seven times.

"Keep an eye on her," he instructed Xiao An, then turned and headed towards the top-floor cabin.

Yin Yue was already waiting at the hatch.

Her long, silvery-white hair cascaded down her back. She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed, her expression still aloof and indifferent, except for a hint of suspicious red at the tips of her ears.

"Ready?" she asked.

"The materials are all there, the pill is ready, and the guardians are all here." Li Hanshan counted them one by one, looking at her with a smile, "Only one last ingredient is missing."

"...Which flavor?"

"you."

Yin Yue's eyelashes trembled. She turned her face away, her voice as cold as frost: "Breaking through to the Void Refinement stage is extremely dangerous, yet you still have the mind to joke around."

"Precisely because it's dangerous, I need to choose the best location and be in the best condition." Li Hanshan pushed open the hatch, stepped aside, and said, "Come in and talk."

The hatch closed silently behind the two of them.

This top-floor cabin is the quietest and most secure place on the airship. The walls are engraved with soundproofing and divine sense-isolating arrays. Outside the porthole, the outline of Poseidon Island lies silently below, the giant tortoise's shell gleaming with an eerie light. Further away, the boundless Black Sea stretches out. This is a solitary island between the sea and the sky, and this cabin is the heart of that island.

Yin Yue stood in the cabin, watching him cast a calming talisman into the whale oil lamp in the corner, and watching him take out the nine-patterned Fusion Pill, place it in his palm, and slowly nurture it with his spiritual power.

"Don't rush the pill." Li Hanshan sat down by the couch, looked up at her, and said, "Yinyue, the Fusion Pill is too potent. When the primordial spirit merges, the dantian and the sea of ​​consciousness will have to undergo a tearing and reshaping. Pure yang energy is too strong, and the strongest is easily broken. I need a wisp of pure yin energy as a guide. Only by balancing yin and yang, and combining strength and gentleness, can I protect the primordial spirit from dissipating."

"I know," Yin Yue said softly. She had understood these principles long ago after so many times of dual cultivation.

"That's good." Li Hanshan extended his hand to her, palm up, and slowly added, "So, before we begin, we need to get the Yin and Yang energies circulating."

Yin Yue stood still, without moving.

She knew perfectly well what he meant by "spin it around." Her gaze fell on his outstretched palm, then slowly rose to rest on his face. That face wore a familiar, nonchalant smile, but there was not a trace of frivolity in his eyes—he was serious, from beginning to end.

"That's why it's safe," Li Hanshan said matter-of-factly. "There's no safer place in the world than here. As for Ayan..."

He flicked his finger, and a wisp of spiritual energy sealed the gaps in the cabin door and all the portholes.

"He can't see or hear anything now."

Hidden Moon: "..."

She stared at him for a full five breaths. Then, she suddenly sighed softly, raised her hand, and untied the first sash of her silver-white robe.

"When you break through," she said, her eyes lowered as she unraveled the mystery, her voice as calm as if she were talking about someone else, "if you dare to get distracted, I'll throw you off the airship."

"Don't worry." Li Hanshan smiled, opened his arms, and pulled her into his embrace. His lips brushed against her earlobe as he said, word by word, "This time, I only care about you."

The whale oil lamp went out silently.

-

In the darkness, their breaths mingled together.

The Yang Ce technique slowly circulated, and pure Yang energy flowed out from Li Hanshan's meridians like a warm river, overflowing the point where the two met; the dormant pure Yin energy in Yin Yue's body was slowly awakened, like the first clear spring gushing from the bottom of a ten-thousand-year-old cold pool, clear and pure, carrying an innate coolness, and went to meet it.

At the moment ice and fire collided, a halo of gold and silver light silently spread out in the darkness.

Li Hanshan, guarding the last bit of clarity in his mind, separated a wisp of his divine consciousness and slowly fed the Fusion Pill in his palm into his mouth.

The elixir melts in the mouth.

An indescribable torrent surged into his sea of ​​consciousness—