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

On the sea, the battle turned into a one-sided beating from the very beginning.

The nine-headed serpent was indeed extraordinary. One of its nine heads spewed soul-burning poisonous flames, another spewed bone-corroding black water, one could control lightning, and the third could stir up whirlpools... When all nine heads moved together, the ferocious power of a mid-stage Void Refinement cultivator was fully unleashed, turning the sea within a thousand miles upside down. Any human cultivator who had just entered the Void Refinement stage would have fled in panic in less than ten breaths.

But it encountered Li Hanshan.

"boom!"

Li Hanshan neither dodged nor evaded, letting the purple lightning bolts spewing from the lightning-controlling head strike him. The lightning exploded, but not even the hem of his clothes was torn—after being struck nine times by the Heavenly Tribulation, this level of lightning was no different from a tickle.

He lunged forward and punched the head right in the eye socket.

"Awooo—!"

The nine-headed serpent roared in agony, its massive body twisting wildly as its nine enormous mouths snapped at the small figure. But each bite only struck an afterimage—Li Hanshan's figure moved like a ghost among the nine heads, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes forward, sometimes backward, as if strolling in his own backyard.

The Void God Seed jumped slightly, and its figure disappeared into thin air. When it reappeared, it was already riding on the neck of the seventh head.

"Roar—" The head thrashed wildly, trying to shake him off.

"Stop fooling around."

Li Hanshan swung his fist, one punch, two punches, three punches.

Every punch lands squarely, every punch reaches the bone.

On the flying boat, Ye Feiyan gripped the gunwale, her knuckles tightening little by little.

She doesn't understand.

I really don't understand it.

A cultivator who has just broken through to the Void Refinement stage should have spiritual power at the initial Void Refinement level, and even the strongest physical body has its limits. Yet the person below withstood the demonic beast's poisonous flames and lightning without a scratch, their movement was so fast that even she could only catch a fleeting afterimage, and the power in their fists was absurdly great—was that really someone who had just entered the Void Refinement stage?!

She suddenly remembered the heavenly tribulation that day.

I recall that thundercloud that almost brought me to the point of attaining the Dao, and the image of that person opening their arms to swallow the last bolt of world-destroying lightning.

So it turns out... that wasn't just luck.

Ye Feiyan's heart sank little by little.

"Awooo—!!!"

On the sea, the serpent's screams changed tone.

It was afraid.

This tiny humanoid creature shouldn't even exist in the Refinement of Void realm! It cultivated for thousands of years, devouring countless sea beasts, growing from a three-headed snake into a nine-headed deep-sea overlord. But under this person's fist, its proud physical body, bloodline, and realm became a joke.

escape!

With a simultaneous jerk of its nine heads, its massive body plunged into the sea, transforming into a streak of black light as it fled desperately into the deep ocean. Its speed in the water was astonishing; wherever it passed, the seawater parted automatically.

"Trying to run away?"

Li Hanshan stood in mid-air, watching the black light disappear into the distance, a smirk playing on his lips.

Deep within his dantian, the Void Divine Seed trembled slightly.

The space around the fleeing black light folded silently.

With a muffled thud, the nine-headed serpent, its thousands of feet long, crashed into an invisible wall, abruptly halting its high-speed journey. The impact churned up the entire sea.

It turned around in alarm.

A streak of purple-gold light had already caught up to them.

"it's over."

The broken sword strikes.

A golden sword beam, as thin as a hair, silently swept across the sea, flashing past the back of the necks of the nine heads.

The nine mountain-like heads froze in unison.

The next instant, a pillar of blood shot into the sky.

The Pure Yang True Flame followed closely behind, transforming into a purple-gold sea of ​​fire that completely engulfed the enormous remains. The soul-burning poisonous flames, the bone-corroding black water, and the lightning-controlling head emitted their final, mournful cries within that sea of ​​fire, before gradually fading into silence.

The sea surface slowly closed in.

Only the crimson sky and the ashes falling back into the sea like rain proved the existence of the great battle that had just taken place.

-

Li Hanshan stood in mid-air, the true flames around him slowly receding.

He turned around, took a step, and reappeared on the deck of the airship.

Ye Feiyan stood three steps away from him.

Blood still dripped from his hair, his robes were stained with the blood of the giant snake, and his face still bore the lingering sharpness of battle. He looked down at her, and slowly began to speak:

"Just now—"

"Who said that my idea of ​​resolving this one-on-one was wishful thinking?"

The sea breeze swept across the deck, causing Ye Feiyan's skirt to flutter in the wind.

She tilted her pale yet still beautiful face up, her fingernails digging four crescent-shaped marks into her palm. She wanted to laugh, to put on that indifferent, sweet expression, but the muscles in her face wouldn't obey her.

After a long pause, she squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth:

"Demon beasts are inherently weaker than human cultivators in combat." She turned her face away, her voice hardening. "Even if you win, it doesn't mean much."

"Really?" Li Hanshan raised an eyebrow, then suddenly took a step closer, looking at her with a smile. "How about we have a fight?"

Ye Feiyan choked.

She glared at him, her chest heaving a few times, then suddenly let out a soft snort, a calculating glint in her eyes: "If you've got the guts, let me recover my cultivation."

"Sure," Li Hanshan replied readily, "There will be other opportunities in the future."

Ye Feiyan: "..."

She always felt that the phrase "there will be a chance later" had a chilling undertone.

-

"babble!!"

The little beast didn't miss this opportunity to claim credit. It transformed into a white light and plunged back into the sea. A moment later, it flew back carrying something even larger than its body—a dark golden demon core, the size of a millstone, with nine spiraling patterns on its surface, and nine tiny snake shadows faintly swimming inside.

That was the essence of the nine-headed serpent.

The little beast, clutching the demon core, huffed and puffed as it presented it to Li Hanshan, tilting its head back with bright, sparkling eyes.

"Hmm?" Li Hanshan looked down at it. "For me?"

"Ee!" The little beast nodded, then pushed the demon core towards him with its little paws.

Li Hanshan chuckled and rubbed its little head: "Little guy, you're still thinking of me. You eat it yourself, this stuff isn't very useful to me."

To everyone's surprise, the little beast shook its head, then tugged at his sleeve and began to chirp and chirp, pointing at the demon core and then at his alchemy furnace.

Li Hanshan was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and didn't know whether to laugh or cry:

"You mean—you want me to help you refine it into an elixir?"

"Ee!" The little beast nodded vigorously, its tail wagging rapidly.

"You sure know how to order people around." Li Hanshan flicked its forehead. "Alright, I'll refine it for you when we get back."

The little beast cheered, stuffed the demon core into his arms again, then turned around and let out a short scream towards the sea.

In an instant, the once calm sea surface parted with a roar.

Thousands of sea beasts swam in from all directions, led by the giant whale, and together they exerted their strength, actually carving out a huge trench tens of miles wide from the sea surface, revealing the dark seabed below.

Deep within the ravine, a pale blue light curtain floated silently.

Beneath the light curtain, divine light soared into the sky.

"Ee!" The little beast pointed at the light screen and proudly puffed out its chest.

A hidden underwater world.

Li Hanshan's body sank into the ravine, passing through the light curtain, and his eyes were immediately brightened—it was a huge cave hidden in the seabed rock strata, with spiritual herbs and medicines everywhere, the fragrance of which was so strong that it was almost intoxicating. Five thousand years old crimson corals formed a forest, three thousand years old Xuanming water grass was like a carpet, and a few spiritual herbs of unknown age swayed gently in the deepest part of the cave.

In the corner, there were still piles of treasures that the nine-headed serpent had plundered over the years: spirit ore, remnants of magical artifacts, and heaps of demon cores...

Without any hesitation, Li Hanshan swept his sleeve and collected them all.

Half an hour later, he returned to the airship, and his storage ring was already more than half full.

"Let's go home." He patted the little beast's head.

-

A few days later, Poseidon Island.

Inside the alchemy room, the furnace fire was reignited.

The millstone-sized demon core was slowly refined by Li Hanshan using pure Yang true flames, supplemented by several spiritual herbs from the secret realm, and was refined in three batches.

On the day the pills were completed, nine purple-gold beast spirit pills lay at the bottom of the furnace, each the size of a longan. The fragrance of the pills stirred up all the monsters on the island.

The little beast stood guard by the alchemy furnace, waiting anxiously for three days and three nights.

After the first batch of pills was consumed, its golden fur shone as brightly as a burning sun.

After the second batch was consumed, a crisp cracking sound, audible only to Li Hanshan, emanated from its small body—the sound of its spiritual energy shifting.

The third batch, it held onto and refused to eat, insisting on saving it, saying, "I'll eat it slowly later."

Li Hanshan let it go.

At the entrance of the alchemy room, Yin Yue quietly watched this scene. She saw the man who had shattered a fifth-level Void Refinement cultivator with a single punch outside now squatting by the alchemy furnace, patiently fanning the fire for a small beast.

"You really care about it," she said softly.

"It's more reliable than many people in this world," Li Hanshan said without looking up.

Yin Yue remained silent for a few moments, offering no rebuttal.

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