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

The sky above Yinquan Sect.

The battle for the Dao is in full swing.

The Yin Quan Sect Master fought three opponents alone, his body covered in blood, yet he grew stronger with each battle. Just then—

Boom!!

On the southern horizon, the dark purple-black tribulation cloud suddenly exploded. Amidst countless bolts of lightning, a white figure stood on the cloud, unmoved as the lightning dragons struck down.

The Yinquan Sect Master looked up and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha—Su Qingyun! Jiang Daoxuan! Silver Bell!"

"You three went to great lengths to ambush and kill me, to ambush my sect's patriarch—and what was the result? What was the result?!"

"You can stop us, but can you stop others?!"

"Look to the south! They've gone to establish their authority right in front of the three of you! What have you accomplished by wasting your time here with me?!"

The three Dao-merging experts looked increasingly grim.

Jiang Daoxuan's face turned a deep purplish-red. He abruptly turned his head, staring intently at the Yinquan Sect Master, the killing intent in his eyes almost tangible.

"Good, very good."

"If I can't kill that coward from your sect, surely I can kill you?!"

"Killing you—wouldn't that just mean your Demonic Sect would lose one Dao-Merging cultivator?!"

Before he finished speaking, he threw a punch, ten times more ferocious than before!

The Yinquan Sect Master's expression changed.

He wasn't afraid of Jiang Daoxuan. In a one-on-one fight, even if his spiritual energy was depleted, he was confident he could withstand a hundred moves.

What he feared was—

"You're abandoning your army?!"

As he retreated hastily, he shouted angrily, "Jiang Daoxuan! Su Qingyun! The three of you are surrounding and killing me here, who's going to care about your tens of thousands of troops?! No matter how strong the Thousand Mountains Locking Formation is, without someone to oversee it, how long can it hold off a Dao-merging cultivator?! By the time you finish killing me and return—you'll probably find tens of thousands of corpses!"

Jiang Daoxuan's fist froze in mid-air.

Just then—

The sea snail hidden in the silver bell sleeve suddenly trembled.

She took out the conch shell and held it to her ear. A moment later, her expression changed.

"Hidden Moon sends a message." She put down the conch shell, her voice strained, "The army... can't hold on. Elder Nie's offensive is too fierce; three sections of the Thousand Mountains Locking Formation have already collapsed, and the casualties are... are heavy."

She said she could only hold on for one more day at most.

There was utter silence, both above and below ground.

Su Qingyun closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes again, they were cold and devoid of any warmth.

"I'm going back."

"You two stay here and keep a close watch on the Yinquan Sect—I don't believe that old geezer can cause any trouble after taking that blow."

"Walk!"

As soon as she finished speaking, her body surged with light, transforming into a white rainbow as she sped towards the army.

-

There are still two Dao-merging beings remaining in the sky.

Jiang Daoxuan twisted his neck, looked at the Yinquan Sect Master, and grinned maliciously.

"Killing you is enough for me and Fellow Daoist Silver Bell."

The Yinquan Sect Master, suspended in mid-air, panting heavily, suddenly laughed.

"Kill me?"

"Just the two of you?"

He raised his hand and slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, a hint of madness flashing in his bloodshot eyes.

"Jiang Daoxuan, Yinling, remember this—"

"I, the Yin Quan Sect, will remember this transaction."

"One day, I'll repay you a hundredfold!"

The moment he finished speaking, a cloud of pitch-black water mist suddenly burst forth around him—within the water mist, his figure seemed to melt, transforming into a wisp of dark blue spring water that shot towards the protective mountain array below!

That was his trump card, which he had been holding onto for hundreds of years.

As the sect leader of Yinquan Sect, he shares the same origin as the mountain-protecting formation. Hundreds of years ago, he secretly left a "return path" within the formation that belonged only to him. Normally, this path is seamlessly integrated with the formation, and no one can detect it. However, once activated, he can escape back into the formation in an instant.

This was his last resort for the day his sect would be destroyed.

Unexpectedly, I used it today ahead of schedule.

"Trying to run?!" Jiang Daoxuan roared and punched the spring.

The spring water was grazed by the force of the fist, swayed slightly, but its momentum did not diminish. With a "whoosh," it disappeared into the light screen of the mountain-protecting array.

Within the great formation, the Yinquan Sect Master's extremely joyful laughter echoed:

"Hahahaha! Jiang Daoxuan! If you've got the guts, come in and kill me!"

Jiang Daoxuan was so angry that he was practically fuming. He threw more than a dozen punches at the light barrier, making the formation vibrate loudly, but he still couldn't break through this old formation that had been built up over the years.

The difference between having a Dao-aligned presiding officer and not having one in this grand formation is enormous.

"Alright, Fellow Daoist Jiang," Yinling said calmly, "No need to chase after them."

"What do you mean?"

Yinling gazed at the protective array around the mountain, her sea-blue eyes revealing a calm that seemed to understand everything.

"That one in the icy pool—can no longer become one."

"That attack just now, although it only hit him with 30% of its power, is the last thing you need when fusing laws—to be interrupted. His fusion rhythm has already been disrupted."

"Once the rhythm is disrupted, the power of the laws entering the body will be like a runaway horse; the stronger the suppression, the heavier the backlash. Let's wait here for another three days—within three days, he will crawl out of the icy pool, spitting blood."

Jiang Daoxuan was taken aback, then threw his head back and burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! Excellent! Well done, Fellow Daoist Silver Bell!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" He waved his hand dismissively. "The old bastards of the Yinquan Sect are crippled, but there's still one left!"

"Isn't Xue Qianzhong from the Blood Fiend Sect also attempting to break through to the Dao Integration Realm?! If we hurry over there now, we can crush him right on the threshold!"

"Walk!"

Two beams of light shot into the sky and sped off toward the Western Regions.

-

They left half an hour later.

Yinquan Sect, at the bottom of a cold pool.

"puff--!!"

Yin Quan Old Ancestor spat out a mouthful of black blood, which was about ten feet long. The dark blue law patterns around his body dimmed inch by inch, like embers that had burned out.

The wisp of law power within him was dissipating.

It wasn't fusion, it was disintegration—like sand that couldn't be held. No matter how he tried to stimulate life force to fill, press, or gather it, that wisp of silver-blue light stubbornly and little by little leaked out of his foundation.

"No...no..."

"Come back...come back to me..."

His voice changed from a roar to a plea.

However, the ways of Heaven are merciless.

Half an hour later, the last trace of the power of the law completely dissipated into the world.

Five thousand years of waiting.

The turtle's breath in the cold pool for a thousand years.

A month was bought with the lives of thousands of people throughout the sect.

In the end, what did we get in return?

In return, he suffered a deep, bone-revealing backlash—his Dao foundation shattered in seven places, and his divine soul shrank by 30%. Not to mention merging with the Dao, from now on, he might not even be able to maintain his peak Void Refinement cultivation.

"ah--!!!!"

The Old Ancestor of Yinquan roared to the sky, his voice like that of a wild beast.

"Immortal Alliance... Su Qingyun... Jiang Daoxuan... Silver Bell..."

"If it weren't for you... if it weren't for your despicable attack... if it weren't for you coming to my door at the critical moment of my fusion with the laws..."

"I clearly... I clearly crossed that threshold! I was just one step away! Just one last step away!!"

"Heaven is unjust... Heaven is unjust!!"

The roar echoed at the bottom of the icy pool, startling the water and causing it to churn, but it did not evoke any pity from anyone.

From the highest heavens to the deepest hells, those who fail to break through to the peak of the Void Refinement stage always meet the same fate.

He was the eighteenth.

-

The battlefield of the Immortal Alliance army.

Nie Hongyuan was still hanging outside the Thousand Mountains Locking Formation, punch after punch.

Inside the grand formation, Elder Gong's hair and beard were stained with blood. Beside the formation's base lay countless cultivators, exhausted and unconscious. Cracks spread like a spiderweb across the pale blue light barrier, which was on the verge of collapse.

At that very moment—

The heavens and earth trembled.

On the southern horizon, calamity clouds rolled and thunder roared. A newly born, flawless, and perfect Dao-merging aura, separated by thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, clearly pressed down on the souls of everyone present.

Elder Nie's fist, which was about to strike the light barrier, froze in mid-air.

He looked up at the north and remained motionless for a long, long time.

"Sect Leader..."

"It actually succeeded!"

His feelings were extremely complicated.

As the leader of the Elders' Council, he had suppressed the sect leader's lineage for hundreds of years, and it seemed he was about to turn the Hehuan Sect into his own domain.

But ironically, at this crucial juncture, she became...

Nearly two thousand years old, she had undergone two trials. The second time, she actually managed to open the gates of Dao, merge with the laws, and transcend the Heavenly Tribulation—from this day forward, the fate of the Joyful Union Sect changed. With a true Dao-Merging expert now in charge, the sect leader's lineage, which had built up over hundreds of years, would now have to rely on others.

Does he hate it?

hatred.

But he also knew that, more than hatred, he felt a strange, indescribable feeling.

Yin Quan Patriarch has been defeated.

He sensed it clearly—the aura of the Yinquan Sect, which had once reached its peak, had dissipated half an hour ago.

If... if it is the Yin Quan Ancestor who succeeds tonight, then for the next several thousand years, the Hehuan Sect will be completely suppressed by the Yin Quan Sect's dual Daoist path. If the sect leader succeeds, the situation will be reversed; the Hehuan Sect will be able to suppress the Yin Quan Sect, and more importantly, the threat from the Immortal Alliance will be alleviated.

So, should he be happy?

do not know.

All he knew was that after all his scheming, seizing credit, choosing the right moment, and manipulating people's hearts, in the end, they never needed him once.

This feeling is even more frustrating than losing a major battle.

"That's enough."

Nie Hongyuan slowly withdrew his fist, looked in the direction from which the fluctuation came, and exhaled a long breath.

"That's good."

"If it's established... the Hehuan Sect will still exist."

His gaze fell back on the massive, riddled array before him.

The cracks on the light screen had spread to the core of the array. Elder Gong's hair and beard were stained with blood, and the sides of the array base were littered with exhausted and unconscious cultivators—this great array wouldn't last much longer.

"Then let's wipe them out!"

Nie Hongyuan decided to press on and break the Thousand Mountains Locking Formation in one fell swoop, annihilating the tens of thousands of Immortal Alliance troops!

Tens of thousands perished, the Thousand Mountains Locking Formation was reduced to ashes, and tens of thousands of cultivators from the Immortal Alliance were wiped out. This was an undeniable achievement, enough to allow him to stand tall again before the new sect leader.

"If you have to blame someone, blame your bad luck."

A fierce glint flashed in Nie Hongyuan's eyes, and his spiritual energy surged forth like a river, converging entirely into his fist. The spiritual energy of the surrounding thousand miles was drained into a vacuum, and the protective array's light barrier trembled and groaned violently under his fist's force—

Just as that punch was about to land—

On the eastern horizon, a streak of emerald light tore through the night.

The streak of light was eerily fast, like a tidal wave sweeping across the sky, silently permeating even the sensory barriers he had set up around him. Immediately afterward, a warm, vast, and unfathomable aura locked onto him from afar.

Nie Hongyuan's fist froze in mid-air.

The aura of the sea creatures.

Silver bell.

She came back so quickly!

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight thoughts had already crossed Nie Hongyuan's mind. Yinling had only recently broken through to the Dao Integration Realm, while he was a veteran Dao Integration Realm cultivator, though even so, his cultivation was only at the second level of the Dao Integration Realm.

But Silver Bell is back, but what about the other two who have reached the Dao?

If those two come back and surround him, he'll be in danger.

"unlucky."

Elder Nie cursed under his breath, his body surging with light as he turned and fled without hesitation, so fast that he didn't even bother to leave an afterimage.

He was naturally unaware that only Yinling had rushed back at that moment.

They arrived in a flurry of activity, and left clean and tidy.

He exhausted himself on this trip, but gained no substantial results—the army was not defeated, no credit was gained, and he offended Su Qingyun and the other two.