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

The giant palm formed from the black mist descended upon Li Hanshan's head, carrying an overwhelming force.

Li Hanshan was pinned to mid-air by the oppressive power of the primordial spirit. His pure yang energy surged and boiled in his dantian, but he could not break free from the invisible restraint. The edge of the giant hand had already touched his hair, and the icy, bone-chilling yin energy seeped into his scalp along the ends of his hair, like hundreds of fine needles piercing his brain at the same time.

Just as the giant hand was about to close, a light suddenly shone deep within Li Hanshan's dantian.

The golden light that he had secretly hidden in the core of the divine infant and had never used suddenly exploded.

That was a wisp of Heavenly Dao power left over from the foundation building of Heavenly Dao. It was as thin as a cicada's wing and as fine as a hair, yet it contained the purest and most righteous energy from the origin of Heaven and Earth.

It burst forth from the depths of the divine infant, instantly igniting all the pure Yang energy within Li Hanshan's body. Purple-gold flames erupted like a volcanic eruption, surging from every pore of his body, condensing into a blazing golden pillar of fire above his head, which slammed fiercely into the descending black giant palm.

boom!

The two forces collided in mid-air, exploding into a blinding flash of light.

The giant hand was jolted by the pillar of fire, its surface billowing with black smoke, like ice and snow meeting boiling oil. The demon's primordial spirit let out a muffled groan, its phantom swaying violently, a flash of shock and anger appearing in its eerie green ghostly fire eyes.

"The power of the Heavenly Dao? You, a cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage, actually possess the power of the Heavenly Dao within your body?"

Li Hanshan did not answer.

Taking advantage of that brief opening, he compressed and ignited all the remaining pure yang energy in his dantian, condensing it into a purple-gold fireball, which he then blasted towards the demon's primordial spirit's face.

The fireball was only the size of a fist, but it was several times brighter than an ordinary fireball. Faint patterns of the power of the Heavenly Dao flowed on its surface, emitting an aura that even demons feared.

The demon snorted coldly, raised his hand, and struck again, scattering the fireballs.

The moment the fireball exploded, it turned into countless tiny sparks that clung to the surface of his primordial spirit, burning the black mist like maggots clinging to its bone, forcing him to divert a portion of his primordial spirit's power to extinguish those sparks.

The sect leader's eyes lit up at that moment.

Without further hesitation, a cyan sword light shot out from her palm, its sword intent sharp and fierce, like a torrent that had been suppressed for hundreds of years finally finding an outlet.

The sword is entirely blue-green, as thin as a cicada's wing, and about three inches long. At the tip of the sword, one can even see wisps of lightning as thin as hair dancing.

That was her natal spirit sword, which she had kept hidden for hundreds of years, nurtured with her own blood essence and the origin of her nascent soul, and had never shown to outsiders.

This is her biggest trump card.

It was also the sect leader's trump card that Li Hanshan intuitively sensed when he was on Seagod Island.

"Qingxiao."

The sect leader gave a low shout, and the cyan spirit sword drew a perfect arc in the air, carrying all her spiritual power at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and slashed down towards the demon's withered body.

The speed of this sword strike was unbelievable. The demon was already flustered by the scorching pure yang fire, his primordial spirit distracted by suppressing the flames. By the time he realized the true target of the cyan sword light, it was already a full breath too late.

"No--!"

The sword's edge pierced the withered, black-robed body, cutting in from the center of the brow, penetrating the skull, neck, chest, and dantian, splitting it in two. The body, nourished by Yin energy for hundreds of years, cracked with a crisp sound, like rotten wood being cleaved in two by a sharp axe, revealing the long-dried and shriveled internal organs and grayish-white bones inside.

The tattered shell froze in mid-air for a moment before exploding into countless gray-black fragments.

The demon has lost its physical body.

His primordial spirit, formed from a mass of black mist, suddenly hovered in mid-air, having lost its last vessel to cling to, like a rootless duckweed exposed to the raging wind.

The black mist on the surface of his primordial spirit began to dissipate rapidly; the scattered fragments no longer slowly coalesced, but drifted further and further away like dust blown by the wind. His eerie green ghostly eyes flashed violently, filled with disbelief and rage: "You...you actually dared to destroy my physical body!"

The sect leader retrieved the Azure Sky Spirit Sword, its blade trembling slightly in her hand, causing her arm to tremble as well.

That sword strike exhausted ninety percent of her spiritual power, and fine cracks reappeared on the surface of her nascent soul in her dantian—the backlash from forcibly activating her natal sword.

She didn't speak, but stared intently at the rapidly dissipating phantom, her lips pressed into a thin line.

The demon looked down at the fragments of his dissipating body, then raised his illusory hand to glance at the black mist peeling off his body. For the first time, a genuine sense of panic appeared in his eyes.

His primordial spirit could not remain separated from his body for long. He had already consumed a large amount of his primordial spirit essence in order to suppress the beast tide, and was also severely injured by his natal spirit sword. Now, even his physical body has been destroyed. After losing his vessel, his primordial spirit dissipated more than twice as fast as expected.

He won't last much longer.

The ghostly green eyes swept across the sect leader, then across Li Hanshan, and finally fixed on the direction of Li Hanshan's dantian.

Although the golden light of the divine infant there was dim, it still pulsed steadily, like an inextinguishable lamp in the darkness.

"You're pushing me!"

His voice suddenly calmed, a calmness that sent chills down one's spine. A twisted smile appeared on his lips. "Having possessed you... the Divine Infant, the Immortal-grade Golden Core, the power of the Heavenly Dao... not only can I recover to my peak, but I even have the chance to return to my former glory!"

Before he could finish speaking, his tattered primordial spirit suddenly lunged towards Li Hanshan. Its speed was like black lightning piercing through space; before Li Hanshan's Nascent Soul level divine sense could detect its movement, the black mist had already struck Li Hanshan's brow.

The sect leader's expression changed drastically. She raised her hand, about to unleash the Azure Sky Spirit Sword to strike Li Hanshan's sea of ​​consciousness, but then abruptly stopped—if the spirit sword struck, Li Hanshan would surely die. Her sword hovered in mid-air, its azure light trembling slightly, yet it never fell.

The little beast suddenly raised its head in Li Hanshan's arms, the tuft of dull golden fur on its forehead shining again, trying to rush in, but Li Hanshan used the last bit of his spiritual power to press its head down: "Don't move."