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

Li Hanshan suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of purple-gold light disappearing from them.

He looked down at his hands, feeling the vastness of his mind, a world even larger than before, and a surge of indescribable joy welled up within him.

The Nascent Soul stage is at its peak, and only one step remains before reaching the Divine Transformation stage.

This step, though still difficult, is no longer out of reach.

The Second Elder also sensed the change in his soul, opened her eyes, and her beautiful eyes were filled with shock: "Your soul... has broken through?"

"The Nascent Soul stage is at its peak." Li Hanshan nodded.

The Second Elder gasped.

The Nascent Soul stage cultivator at its peak possesses a level of spiritual power that only the sect leader can achieve in the entire Northern Wilderness. And now, a Golden Core stage cultivator actually possesses a spiritual strength on par with the sect leader.

"Li Hanshan, how many more surprises can you possibly give people?" She looked at him, her gaze extremely complex.

Just as Li Hanshan was about to speak, he suddenly felt a strange throbbing coming from the Yang pattern on his abdomen.

A thought struck him, and he sent a wisp of his divine sense into the Yang Pattern Space.

The golden mist in the space was even denser than before. The mist surged and condensed like living things, slowly swirling around the flowers.

The flower belonging to the Second Elder has blossomed with three petals after more than two months of continuous dual cultivation.

Strangely, the light on those three petals was very dim; it was almost unnoticeable unless you looked closely.

Li Hanshan's heart stirred, and he touched the flower with his divine sense, discovering that the Yin patterns on the Second Elder's abdomen also lit up.

Unlike Hua Nongying and Qin Muyue, the Second Elder felt no discomfort when her Yin patterns lit up—it was like an invisible chain that, although it was already around her, did not tighten and went unnoticed by her.

"This is……"

Li Hanshan was overjoyed.

After the Yang Ce technique entered the second stage, the Yin patterns could actually be hidden!

The previous dark lines will be noticed once they reappear.

However, the Second Elder's Yin Mark, formed after his breakthrough in the Yang Book Technique, was able to remain silent and undetected.

He tentatively probed the Second Elder's body with his divine sense, tracing the path of the Yin pattern. The Yin pattern coiled on her lower abdomen, like a budding flower, quiet, docile, and without any aggression.

The Second Elder himself seemed completely unaware of its existence.

Without a doubt, such a shaved mark is safer.

Otherwise, if someone with higher cultivation discovers the Yin patterns and senses something is wrong, they might take action against Li Hanshan before the flower blooms into three petals, thus nipping the crisis in the bud.

Now, that's all.

Li Hanshan withdrew his divine sense and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

"What's wrong?" The Second Elder noticed his unusual expression and frowned slightly. "Your complexion looks a bit off."

Li Hanshan shook his head, his expression remaining calm: "It's nothing. I'm just a little tired from cultivating and need to rest."

The second elder stared at him for a moment, but did not ask any further questions.

She stood up, stretched her limbs, and her red robes fluttered gently in the sea breeze. After more than a month of cultivation, her changes were clearly visible. The bottleneck that had kept her stuck at the mid-Nascent Soul stage for many years was now showing signs of loosening. Her spiritual strength had also increased significantly, bringing her closer and closer to the late-Nascent Soul stage.

"I'm going to get something to eat." She walked briskly towards the shore. "I haven't eaten for three months, I'm starving."

Li Hanshan watched her departing figure, his gaze lingering on her lower abdomen.

There, an unseen shadowy mark lay silently, like a silent brand, waiting for him to awaken it at any moment.

"The second stage of the Yang Ce Technique is indeed miraculous."

Li Hanshan withdrew his gaze, stood up, and walked to the edge of the golden light barrier.

Outside the protective barrier, the sect leader remained seated cross-legged on the reef, like a statue, motionless for a month. Her aura was much more stable than before, and the wound on her left arm had healed. Although the cracks in her nascent soul were still there, at least they wouldn't worsen.