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

The moment Li Hanshan saw that face clearly, he froze.

Like.

so similar.

Her eyebrows, her facial features, even the curve of her lips when she smiled—everything was exactly the same as the girl in my dream.

But upon closer inspection, it wasn't her, or rather, it wasn't the her from my dream.

The girl in my dream had clear, bright eyes. She sat barefoot on a blue stone, swinging her legs back and forth. When she spoke, her chin was slightly raised, and she exuded an undeniable girlish charm—a charm untouched by the passage of time.

The "girl" in front of me, though with the same face, exuded a calm and serene aura, like an ancient well.

She was smiling, but her smile lacked the lively energy of her youthful days and instead held a serene composure. Her eyes were still clear, but deep within that clarity lay something indescribable—as if she had witnessed too many partings and deaths, and had silently carried them for far too long.

Li Hanshan's heart suddenly sank.

If the girl in my dream was a girl from thousands of years ago—

The girl in front of me is a person who has traveled alone for thousands of years.

While he was still in a daze, the girl's clear eyes curved into two crescent moons, and the corners of her mouth gradually lifted, her eyes crinkling with laughter, as if she had been waiting for this moment for far too long.

"uncle."

"You've arrived."

"I knew you'd make it this far."

Li Hanshan stood there, opening his mouth. A thousand words, in the end, condensed into just one:

"Girl."

"These...were all left to me by you?"

"Hmm." Luo Li's illusory figure nodded, her tone light as if discussing the pleasant weather. "Ever since the Yao Guang Sect was destroyed, I've been waiting for today."

"This treasure vault contains all the assets of the Yao Guang Sect. Spirit stones, magical artifacts, talismans—use them as you please, sir. If you don't use them all, take them; if you can't, seal them up. Anyway—" She tilted her head, "I have no use for them anyway, so I might as well give them all to you, sir."

Li Hanshan's throat bobbed: "That extraterrestrial demon..."

"It was also left for the old man."

Luo Li's answer was crisp and concise.

"It came with the great calamity eight thousand years ago, and I used the entire main hall as a vessel and the earth's veins as fuel to suppress it under the jade pillar. For these eight thousand years, I have kept it—feeding it a little spiritual energy, keeping it alive, neither letting it die nor letting it have an easy life."

"Why?" Li Hanshan frowned.

"So that the old man can witness the power of the extraterrestrial demons in advance."

Luo Li's smile faded slightly, and for the first time, a heaviness that seemed completely out of place for her age, a weight that had been accumulated over eight thousand years, surfaced in her clear eyes.

"Sir, do you know what an extraterrestrial demon is?"

Li Hanshan shook his head.

"They are not demonic beasts, not evil cultivators, not even beings of this world," Luo Li said slowly. "They roam the void beyond this world, waiting. They keep waiting."

"Waiting for the Mahayana."

"Cultivators in this realm, upon reaching the pinnacle of their cultivation, must knock on the Immortal Gate. And the moment the Immortal Gate is opened, establishing the path to ascension—" Luo Li enunciated each word clearly, "is the signal for the arrival of extraterrestrial demons."

"They were already waiting at the exit of the ascension passage. As soon as the passage opened, they entered. They never hunted ordinary cultivators, but those who had reached the end of their cultivation path and were ascending to immortality. Devouring the essence of a Mahayana cultivator was better than consuming the spiritual energy of billions of living beings."

Li Hanshan's breathing gradually became sluggish.

"And each time they arrive, whether they succeed or not, when they leave, they tear a piece of flesh from this world."

"The laws are collapsing, the spiritual veins are drying up, and the Sea of ​​Laws is becoming more barren year by year—Grandpa, why do you think this world is getting weaker and weaker? Why were there so many Dao-Merging beings in ancient times, but now only a handful appear every few thousand years?"

"Because this world has been eaten, bite by bite, for tens of thousands of years."

"On that night eight thousand years ago, my sect's patriarch, unable to suppress his cultivation level, forcefully knocked on the gates of immortality."

"The instant the passage opened—" Luo Li's illusory figure gently closed her eyes, "the Heavenly Demon descended."

"Overnight, the Yaoguang Sect was reduced to ruins. One Mahayana cultivator, more than ten Dao Integration cultivators, and tens of thousands of disciples—only I survived."

The vast expanse of white sky and earth fell silent.

Li Hanshan stood there, silent for a long time. He had actually seen these things in fragments of his memory before. But the girl's illusory account made them even clearer and more certain.

He finally realized it.

To determine the origin of this burial mound-like ruin, to understand why the Sea of ​​Laws is so barren, and to understand what the inscription on the stone tablet, "Those who have not reached the Void Refinement stage may not enter," is meant to prevent—

He also understood how this girl, who always called him "Grandpa" with her eyes crinkled, had emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood on that night eight thousand years ago.

"So, that extraterrestrial demon was the first lesson I taught you, sir."

Luo Li opened her eyes again, her gaze falling on him, gentle yet more serious than ever before.

"They will come again. As long as there are still cultivators in this world, as long as there are still people knocking on the gates of immortality, they will definitely come again. Before that, you must know what the enemy looks like, you must kill one with your own hands—"

"Otherwise, when that day comes, you won't even know how you died."

"Grandpa, are you angry with me?" she suddenly asked, "I didn't discuss it with you before letting you risk your life against a late-stage Void Refinement Heavenly Demon."

Li Hanshan was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

"What's it to you?"

"That thing oppressed you for eight thousand years. I killed it to avenge you."

Luo Li paused for a moment, then burst out laughing, her eyes narrowing as she laughed, like a kitten whose itch had been tickled.

"The old man still knows how to talk."

As she laughed, her figure began to fade.

"The divine power within this jade slip won't last much longer. Remember these last few words, sir—"

"We have plenty of spirit stones for the Flowing Light Array in our vault. Create as many as you like, don't worry about wasting them."

"Keep that magic core safe, sir. Inside it... there's something I prepared for you."

"Also, those few items deepest in the treasure vault are useless to me now. I'll come back for them when I reach the Dao Integration stage."

"uncle."

Before the phantom completely disappeared, the girl in yellow took one last look at him.

That look was very deep, very deep.

"Get stronger quickly."

"The girl is waiting for you up ahead."

As soon as the girl finished speaking, the illusory image was about to disappear. "Wait, girl, where are you now?" Li Hanshan quickly called out to her, but it was too late. The girl's illusory image only glanced at him one last time before vanishing completely.

The white light dissipated.

Li Hanshan stood alone in the empty, pure white void for a very long time.

Then, he slowly tightened his grip on the jade slip in his hand.

"To be in harmony with the Dao."

He repeated it in a low voice, then suddenly grinned, a blazing light igniting in his eyes.

"Wait."

"The old man is coming to find you."