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

Fragments of soul power drifted slowly down from the night sky, like a pale blue snowfall.

Xiao An sat cross-legged in the center of the ruins, his hands forming a hand seal, and he fully activated the Netherworld Record Technique.

The fragments of soul power surged towards her soul like rivers flowing into the sea, and were completely absorbed into her body. Nourished by this pure soul power, her soul became increasingly solid, and the pressure it emitted rose steadily.

But Li Hanshan soon discovered the problem.

Xiao An frowned, and an abnormal fluctuation began to appear on the surface of his soul.

Although those fragments of soul power were pure, they were, after all, from the Yinming Sect's Yin spirits, and contained resentment and impurities.

A small amount is fine, but when a massive amount of soul power fragments flood into her body, those faint resentments will gather into an undeniable force, rampaging through her soul and interfering with her mind.

"This is bad." Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat.

He stood up, walked to Xiao An, and said in a deep voice, "Xiao An, stop."

Xiao An opened her eyes, a flicker of pain flashing in her eerie green pupils. Her voice was somewhat hoarse: "Senior, I... I can feel impurities in my soul power. They are eroding my sanity."

Li Hanshan squatted down, looked into her eyes, and said earnestly, "I'll help you refine it. I'll use the Refining Spirit Technique to remove the impurities little by little."

Xiao An was taken aback: "Senior, the Refining Spirit Technique can only refine the divine consciousness, not the soul power..."

"Soul power and divine soul are originally one." Li Hanshan interrupted her. "The Refining Divine Art can refine the divine soul, so it can naturally refine soul power as well. It's just that the methods are a bit different, and I need your cooperation."

Xiao An looked into his eyes, remained silent for a moment, and then nodded heavily.

Li Hanshan sat cross-legged opposite her, extending his hand so that his palm met hers. Pure Yang energy surged from his palms, pressing their hands tightly together. He closed his eyes and probed Xiao An's soul with his divine sense.

Xiao An's soul was more complex than he had imagined.

Countless fragments of soul power roamed within her soul body; some had already been refined and integrated into it, while others struggled, trying to break free of her control.

Those unrefined fragments of soul power contained extremely faint resentment—resentment that came from the innocent lives killed by that vengeful spirit. Though faint, it was terrifyingly stubborn, clinging to the fragments of soul power and impossible to shake off.

"I'm about to begin," Li Hanshan transmitted his thoughts. "The process might be a little painful, so please bear with it."

"Mmm." Xiao An closed her eyes.

The Refining Spirit Technique quietly began to operate. Li Hanshan's divine sense transformed into countless fine needles, as thin as hair, probing into Xiao An's soul body and precisely piercing the resentment attached to the fragments of soul power.

The resentment, pierced by the needle of divine sense, emitted a silent shriek and struggled violently, trying to break free of its restraints. However, Li Hanshan's divine sense was too powerful; for these weak resentments, the divine sense of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator was like Mount Tai pressing down on them, leaving them utterly powerless to resist.

Strands of resentment were peeled from his fragments of soul power, then burned away by the pure yang energy. With each strand peeled away, Xiao An's body trembled, and her expression contorted for a moment. But her aura grew purer and more solid amidst this pain.

This process is exceptionally slow.

On the first day, Li Hanshan only refined less than 10% of the resentment.

On the third day, 30%...

On the fifth day, 50% was achieved.

Seven days later, 70% complete.

By the tenth day, all resentment had finally been stripped away. Xiao An's soul became as pure as water, and a ghostly blue light emanated from her body, dyeing the entire ruins a ghostly blue.

But this is only the first step.

The real breakthrough will come next.

Li Hanshan withdrew his divine sense and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

Ten days of continuous spiritual refinement had greatly depleted his spiritual energy, leaving him somewhat pale. However, he did not rest. Instead, he took out a drop of golden dew from his Yang Pattern Space and swallowed it.

A surge of immense energy exploded within his dantian, and the Immortal-grade Golden Core burst forth with a dazzling purple-gold light. Nourished by the golden dewdrops, his divine sense rapidly recovered, quickly returning to its peak state.

"Xiao An, are you ready?" he asked.

Xiao An opened her eyes, her deep green pupils filled with determination: "Ready."

Li Hanshan nodded and extended his hand again, palm to palm.

This time, it's not about refining impurities, but about cultivating both the spirit and the soul.

Their souls merged once more, like two clear springs meeting and slowly blending together.

Xiao An's soul power surged into his sea of ​​consciousness, and his divine sense surged into Xiao An's soul body, intertwining, interweaving, and tempering each other. The feeling was stronger than ever before, as if the two souls had become one at this moment, each containing the other.

Under the tempering of Li Hanshan's divine sense, Xiao An's soul became increasingly solid and luminous. The refined pure soul power surged within her soul, frantically striving towards the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage.

Once, twice, three times.

boom!

An invisible barrier was shattered, and Xiao An's soul trembled violently. A bright blue light shone around her, like a blue sun blooming in the night sky. Her aura leaped from the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage to the Nascent Soul stage, and her pressure spread in all directions like a tidal wave, scattering the surrounding rocks in all directions.

A Nascent Soul-level Yin Spirit has been formed!

Li Hanshan was overjoyed and was about to withdraw his divine sense when he discovered that his own sea of ​​consciousness was also trembling violently. At the moment Xiao An broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, a portion of her soul power was fed back into his sea of ​​consciousness, merging and refining with his divine sense.

It was an extremely mysterious feeling. Although Xiao An's soul power was not as pure as Luo Li's, it carried a unique yin-like power that perfectly complemented his pure yang energy. Yin and yang harmonized, and his divine sense surged wildly in this complementary relationship.

Early stage of late-stage Nascent Soul. Mid-stage of late-stage Nascent Soul. Peak of late-stage Nascent Soul!

His divine sense surged from the late Nascent Soul stage all the way to the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage—that is, the peak of the late Nascent Soul stage, just one step away from the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage.

Li Hanshan opened his eyes, a flash of purple-gold light appearing briefly within them. He looked down at his hands, feeling the vast, ocean-like power of divine consciousness within his sea of ​​awareness, his heart filled with both surprise and joy.

The ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage. His divine sense has reached the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage.

"Senior..." Xiao An's voice rang in my ears, tinged with weariness, but even more so with barely suppressed joy.

Li Hanshan looked up and saw Xiao An standing in front of him. Her soul form was so solid that it was almost indistinguishable from a real person, with clear features and fair skin. If it weren't for the faint, eerie blue light surrounding her, it would be almost impossible to tell that she was a ghost. Her eerie green eyes shimmered with a crystalline light, as if she were crying, yet also as if she were laughing.

"Senior, I've broken through." Her voice was choked with emotion.

Li Hanshan stood up, looked at her, and smiled sincerely.

Congratulations, Xiao An.

Xiao An shook her head, and tears finally fell. The tears of the ghost were not water, but tiny, eerie blue specks of light that drifted slowly down from the night sky, a sight of breathtaking beauty.

"It was the senior who helped me." Her voice trembled slightly. "If it weren't for the senior helping me refine my resentment and using dual cultivation of the soul and spirit to temper my soul power, I wouldn't have been able to break through."

Li Hanshan waved his hand, not replying. He turned around and looked in the direction the demon had fled. The sect leader and the others had been chasing after him for almost a month, and there was still no news.

"Xiao An, go back to the Soul Banner to consolidate your cultivation," he said. "I'll go find the sect leader and the others."

Xiao An nodded and transformed into a streak of black light, disappearing into the Soul Return Banner.

Li Hanshan summoned his flying sword and flew towards the southeast.

In the days that followed, he tracked the auras of the six sect leaders.

The spiritual energy fluctuations of the Nascent Soul cultivator were so intense that even after a month, faint traces remained in the air.

"Senior, you possess soul power."

"Again? Xiao An, quick, suck them up."

Along the way, every now and then, Xiao An could sense some dissipated soul power.

This soul power is extremely vast, like the residue left behind after a ghost was killed or self-destructed.

Every time they encountered this, Li Hanshan would have Xiao An absorb the soul power.

Following the trail of the battle, Li Hanshan flew for more than ten days and finally found the six sect leaders on the shore of the Endless Sea.

But their situation was worse than he had imagined.