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

"You want me to protect you?" The Second Elder leaned against the rock, a playful glint in her beautiful eyes. Her red lips parted slightly. "Aren't you afraid that I'll stab you in the back while you're breaking through?"

Li Hanshan looked at her and said calmly, "The sect leader is guarding outside. If you stab me, she'll immediately shatter your nascent soul."

The Second Elder's smile froze slightly, but he quickly regained his languid demeanor.

She waved her hand, her tone light: "Alright, alright, I was just saying it casually, why are you so nervous?"

She stood up, brushed the sand off her skirt, and said, "Just focus on your breakthrough; this elder will watch over you."

Li Hanshan nodded and turned to walk out of the golden light barrier.

The Second Elder watched his retreating figure, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

She lowered her head, her gaze falling on her lower abdomen. She touched it thoughtfully—an indescribable feeling was lingering above her dantian, appearing and disappearing, like a thread gently wrapping around her meridians, yet vanishing the moment it was touched.

There seems to be something there.

Even with the Second Elder's cultivation level, he couldn't detect what was there.

She frowned, but didn't delve into it. She turned around, walked to the edge of the array, sat down cross-legged, formed hand seals, and began to activate the Spirit Gathering and Nascent Soul Transformation Array.

Li Hanshan stepped out of the golden light barrier and came before the sect leader.

The sect leader remained seated cross-legged on the reef, her black dress fluttering gently in the sea breeze. Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes, her gaze falling on him from behind the black veil.

"Ready?"

"This disciple is preparing to break through to the Nascent Soul stage today," Li Hanshan said calmly, clasping his hands in a respectful bow. "I humbly request Master to protect this disciple."

The sect leader remained silent for a moment, then slowly stood up.

The pressure from the peak Nascent Soul cultivator was like an invisible mountain, causing the surrounding air to stagnate.

She walked to the golden light barrier, raised her hand and pressed it against the light wall, feeling the fluctuations of the array, and nodded slightly after a moment.

"The formation is functioning normally, and the spiritual energy is plentiful." She turned around, looking at Li Hanshan, a complex light flashing in her deep eyes. "Rest assured, you can break through with peace of mind. This sect will guard you here, and no one will be able to disturb you."

"Thank you, Master."

Li Hanshan turned around and walked back into the formation, sitting cross-legged in the center of the formation.

The Second Elder had pushed the formation to its limit, with all thirty-six array bases lighting up simultaneously. Spiritual energy surged into the formation as if it were a tangible substance, condensing into a golden vortex around him.

He closed his eyes and went through the golden characters in his mind again—the method of condensing the divine infant, memorizing every detail.

Can't wait any longer.

Luo Li had said that the window of opportunity for developing a divine infant is limited. He has already raised his divine soul to the Nascent Soul level, and if he delays any longer, the spiritual power in his golden core may lose its optimal state.

Today, he will take this final step.

Li Hanshan took a deep breath and activated the Yang Ce Gong technique at full power.

The purplish-gold immortal-grade golden core in his dantian trembled violently, its surface patterns flowing like living things, bursting forth with dazzling golden light. He probed the golden core with his divine sense, drawing out the extremely refined pure yang essence bit by bit, intertwining and fusing it with his divine soul power.

"Shattering the Core to Form the Nascent Soul... Begin!"

He violently shattered the golden core. The immortal-grade golden core, which had been cultivated for decades and refined countless times, exploded at this moment, turning into countless golden light spots.

Each point of light contained extremely pure Yang energy and spiritual power, surging wildly within his dantian. At the same time, following the technique taught by Luo Li, he poured his divine soul power into those golden points of light like a tidal wave.

His soul and spiritual energy collided and merged violently in his dantian. The process was unimaginably painful; every moment his soul and spiritual energy merged felt like someone was stirring the depths of his soul with a red-hot iron needle. He gritted his teeth, veins bulged on his forehead, and all the muscles in his body trembled violently.

But he didn't stop. His divine sense, like invisible hands, guided and gathered the golden light spots that had merged with his divine soul, one by one, converging them towards the center of his dantian. The light spots gathered more and more, becoming denser and denser, forming a golden ball of light the size of a fist, which slowly rotated in the center of his dantian.

Within the ball of light, a faint figure could be seen taking shape.

The figure was no more than an inch long, entirely golden, with blurred features and curled-up limbs, like a seed yet to sprout. But as more and more golden light spots merged into it, the figure began to become clearer—eyebrows, eyes, mouth, nose, limbs, gradually solidifying and taking shape.

Li Hanshan could sense that the figure was establishing an unprecedented connection with him. It was the fusion of his divine soul and nascent soul, the convergence of his soul and life, like a mother feeling the first movement of her unborn child.

"It's done...it's almost done..." He was overjoyed and injected the last batch of golden light into it.

Just then, a muffled clap of thunder suddenly came from the sky.

Rumbling--

The thunder didn't come from the clouds, but exploded directly from the void, as if the very heavens themselves were roaring in anger.

The entire sky darkened instantly, the once clear weather shrouded in an eerie purple thundercloud. The thundercloud churned endlessly, forming a huge vortex at its center, within which golden lightning bolts could be faintly seen writhing, and the oppressive aura emanating from it caused all living beings within a radius of hundreds of miles to tremble in fear.

On the reef outside the light barrier, the sect leader's pupils suddenly contracted. At this moment, her divine sense perceived an unprecedented power—the power of the Heavenly Dao, pure, vast, and irresistible, more than a hundred times stronger than the celestial phenomena she had caused when she broke through to the Nascent Soul stage.

"This thunder... how can it be so terrifying?" Her voice was unusually tinged with a hint of discomposure.

When she broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, the heavenly tribulation was far less terrifying than this.

Li Hanshan's tribulation lightning was nothing like a Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it the Heavenly Tribulation of the Nascent Soul stage.

At this moment, golden lightning slowly emerged from the center of the vortex, like a lurking thunder dragon, firmly locking onto Li Hanshan.

Inside the formation, Li Hanshan opened his eyes and looked up at the terrifying thunderclouds.

He could feel the power of the Heavenly Dao accumulating, like a giant crossbow with its bowstring fully drawn, ready to shoot at him at any moment.

But he felt no fear; instead, a strong sense of anticipation rose within him—Luo Li had said that the tribulation of the Divine Infant was a good opportunity for tempering. If he could withstand it, the quality of the Divine Infant would undergo a qualitative leap.

"bring it on."

He spoke softly, then stood up. A pure, purplish-gold yang energy burned around him, like a fiery armor enveloping him. He spread his arms, facing the golden lightning bolt poised to strike in the sky, and looked up.

boom!!!

The first bolt of lightning struck.