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

The days after the Hehuan Sect unified the Northern Wilderness were more peaceful than Li Hanshan had imagined.

Without the threat of the Heavenly Demon Sect and without the Nascent Soul Demon Lord, the entire Northern Wilderness was like a pool of water that had been stirred up and then slowly settled, gradually returning to its clear state.

Li Hanshan's life returned to normal. He cultivated during the day and practiced dual cultivation with the sect leader, the second elder, or Hua Nongying and a few other women at night. Every few days, he would go to Jade Peak to refine pills. His days were fulfilling and peaceful.

He had made considerable gains over the past few months. The large amount of spirit stones and pills he obtained from the demon's ring allowed him to accumulate spiritual power at a rate far exceeding that of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators. Coupled with the benefits of dual cultivation with the sect leader, a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, he could vaguely sense that the bottleneck in his early Nascent Soul stage was loosening.

That night, Li Hanshan was sitting cross-legged in his cave when that long-lost pulling force suddenly surged into his heart.

Li Hanshan knew he was about to have another dream, so he entered the dream and met Luo Li.

"uncle."

Upon seeing Li Hanshan, Luo Li happily ran over and looked him up and down.

The last time the two met was on Giant Turtle Island, after Li Hanshan obtained the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique.

Li Hanshan told him about some of the subsequent events, including how he fought back and killed the Nascent Soul Demon Lord.

Upon hearing the part about the demon's primordial spirit possessing her, the girl nervously gripped the hem of her clothes again. Although she knew Li Hanshan was alright, her heart still pounded with fear: "That was too close. Even if his primordial spirit was severely injured, it was still at the Nascent Soul level. You, Grandpa, had only recently broken through to the Divine Infant stage, and your spiritual power hadn't fully recovered... Luckily, Xiao An was able to restrain it."

Li Hanshan nodded: "It was indeed dangerous. If it weren't for Xiao An, I wouldn't have been able to hold out for long under the suppression of his primordial spirit."

Luo Li pressed for details, asking how the sect leader was injured in the storm, how the Grand Elder betrayed them, and how the Second Elder and the others survived the attack on the Hehuan Sect by the Heavenly Demon Sect.

Li Hanshan answered her questions one by one, and she listened intently, sometimes frowning and sometimes letting out a sigh of relief, as if she had personally participated in those thrilling experiences.

By the time I finished speaking, it was already late at night.

Moonlight spilled across the river, bathing it in a silvery-white glow. Luo Li leaned against a blue stone, her hands supporting her at her sides, gazing up at the starry sky of her dream. After a moment of silence, she suddenly said, "Grandpa, don't you think this dream is much more stable than before?"

Li Hanshan noticed it too. He looked up and around, and found that the boundaries of the dream were indeed more solid than ever before. The golden membrane was clearly visible in his perception, like a sturdy dam, firmly surrounding the entire dream without any sign of loosening.

"It is indeed different." He stood up, walked to the edge of the dream, and touched the golden film. A gentle rebound force came from his fingertips, but the edge of the dream did not even ripple.

Luo Li also came over and tried it, her eyes filled with surprise: "So stable. It's as if the dream itself is evolving along with Master's cultivation level."

Li Hanshan probed the boundaries of the dream with his divine sense. His divine sense, at the Nascent Soul level, was like an invisible net, enveloping the entire dream. He could clearly sense that he could now actively control the speed of the dream's operation. If he devoted all his energy to maintaining the dream, he could even make the flow of time in the dream tens or even hundreds of times slower than in reality.

"Little girl." He withdrew his divine sense, his tone tinged with barely suppressed joy, "It seems I can maintain dreams for longer now."

Luo Li's eyes lit up: "How long?"

Li Hanshan closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, then estimated: "If I maintain this at full power now, I can last at least three years. The dream will naturally dissipate after three years. If my cultivation level increases, it should last even longer."

"Three years!" Luo Li was so excited she almost jumped up, spinning barefoot on the grass. "Then we'll have plenty of time to do so many things in our dreams! Before, every time we met, it was always a rush; I'd only teach half before leaving, and there wasn't enough time to explain things in detail. With three years, Grandpa can learn more than all of what he'd learned before!"

A sense of anticipation welled up in Li Hanshan's heart. In the past, each time he entered a dream, the time was always too short, and he was always in a rush to learn. If he could have a whole year, what he could learn from Luo Li would far surpass what he had learned before.

"Girl, I want to cultivate spiritual attack techniques." He got straight to the point. "I've always used spiritual spikes to attack opponents, and while they're effective, I feel there's room for improvement. Do you have any higher-level attack methods?"

Luo Li suppressed her smile and nodded seriously: "Yes. I've wanted to teach you for a long time, but the time we spent together before was always too short to learn everything. Now that I have a year, it's perfect time to teach you more advanced techniques."

She sat cross-legged on the bluestone, gesturing for Li Hanshan to sit as well. Her slender fingers began to write in the air, and ancient characters appeared like flowing light, arranging themselves into a profound incantation in the void. The characters shone with a faint golden hue, each one containing an aura of extreme sharpness, enough to make one's heart tremble just by looking at them.

"This technique is called the Sword of the Divine Soul," Luo Li said with a hint of solemnity. "Unlike ordinary spiritual attacks, it doesn't condense spiritual energy into a sharp cone or needle to attack the opponent's sea of ​​consciousness. Instead, it compresses, tempers, and condenses spiritual energy into a tangible sword shape. This sword doesn't harm the physical body; it only cuts through the soul. If used properly, it can even sever the opponent's soul with a single strike when they are completely unprepared."

"Sever the soul?" Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat. "Wouldn't that mean a fatal blow?"

"The damage to the soul far exceeds that of ordinary spiritual attacks." Luo Li nodded. "If a Nascent Soul cultivator is struck, at best their soul will be severely injured and their cultivation level will drop; at worst, their soul will shatter on the spot and their spirit will be scattered. It also poses a certain threat to Deity Transformation cultivators. Although it cannot kill them in one blow, it is enough to distract them and expose their weaknesses."

She paused, her tone becoming even more serious: "However, this technique is extremely energy-consuming; each use consumes a large amount of divine sense. With your current Nascent Soul level divine sense, after using it at full power once, at least half of your divine sense will be depleted, making it unusable for a short period. Therefore, this is a true trump card, not to be used lightly; once used, the outcome must be decided."

Li Hanshan memorized those golden characters and began to comprehend their profound meaning.

Cultivating the Sword of the Divine Soul was far more difficult than he had imagined. The core of this technique lay not in condensing divine sense, but in compressing it to its extreme. If ordinary divine sense attacks were like shaping divine sense into a blunt knife, then the Sword of the Divine Soul was like forging divine sense into a steel needle, sharp, solid, and completely leaking out.

For the past few months, he couldn't even condense a sword shape. Every time he tried to compress his divine sense, it would uncontrollably disperse, like water in his hand—the harder he squeezed, the faster it leaked out.

Luo Li sat beside him, patiently guiding his consciousness, demonstrating the technique of compressing it again and again. Her finger lightly touched Li Hanshan's brow, transferring a wisp of pure soul power into his sea of ​​consciousness, slowly guiding it along a specific route. Wherever it passed, his consciousness spontaneously contracted and condensed, as if bound by invisible ropes.

"Grandpa, don't squeeze so hard." Luo Li's voice rang in his mind, gentle and clear. "Divine consciousness isn't sand. The harder you squeeze it, the faster it will scatter. You need to guide it like flowing water, letting it flow to where you want it to go."

Li Hanshan took a deep breath, abandoning the idea of ​​forcibly compressing the consciousness, and instead used his divine sense to "guide" the scattered consciousnesses to converge in the same direction. At first, the effect was not significant, but when he completely relaxed and stopped exerting force, the consciousnesses began to automatically regroup, like a school of startled fish finally finding their leader and starting to swim in the same direction.

A year later, he finally condensed the first prototype of a divine soul sword in his sea of ​​consciousness. It was just a blurry sword shadow, about three inches long, with a faint golden light emanating from it. The edges were still a bit rough, not sharp enough, and not solid enough, but at least it had the shape of a sword.

"Keep going," Luo Li encouraged. "We already have the basic form; we're not far from the true Divine Soul Sword."

For the next year, Li Hanshan honed the sword's shadow day after day. He poured strands of his divine sense into it, repeatedly compressing, polishing, and purifying it, making the sword's shadow clearer, smoother, and more radiant, transforming it from a pale gold to a solid, dazzling brilliance. In the center of his sea of ​​consciousness, a small golden sword, about half a foot long, hovered in the void, its blade shimmering with iridescent light, radiating a chillingly sharp aura.

Luo Li looked at the small sword that had taken shape in his sea of ​​consciousness and nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad. It's usable now. Although its power isn't strong enough, it should be sufficient to deal with ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators."

Another year passed, and Li Hanshan attempted to condense the Divine Soul Sword to its limit within his sea of ​​consciousness. He poured all his divine power into the sword, and the small sword suddenly grew, extending from half a foot to more than three feet long. Golden light illuminated the entire sea of ​​consciousness, and the sharpness of the blade was like a tangible knife, causing Li Hanshan's own soul to feel a stinging pain.

"This is a full-force attack." Luo Li sensed the sharpness of the attack, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes. "If this sword strike were to hit head-on, even a peak Nascent Soul cultivator would suffer severe damage to their soul. Moreover, given the element of surprise, the opponent wouldn't have time to defend."

Li Hanshan slowly dissipated the power from the sword, feeling the small sword in his sea of ​​consciousness shrink back to half a foot in length. A sense of solid satisfaction welled up in his heart. This year of cultivation had elevated his spiritual attack techniques to a whole new level. He no longer only had the spiritual spike as a means; now he had a true trump card—the sword of the soul.

"Girl, another year has passed." Li Hanshan withdrew his divine sense and looked at Luo Li.

Luo Li sat on the bluestone, her hands supporting her at her sides, her bare feet gently swinging. The moonlight enveloped her in a soft halo. She turned to look at him, her eyes crinkling: "Come again next year, I'll teach you formations. Now that you have the Divine Soul Sword, coupled with ancient formations, you'll be able to fight even a Nascent Soul cultivator."

Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat: "You can teach formations in dreams?"

"Of course!" Luo Li said matter-of-factly. "I've memorized quite a few array diagrams from the ancient ruins. Although I can't set up arrays directly in reality, I can draw them out in my dreams and show them to you, sir. Once you've memorized them, you can set them up in reality."

As she spoke, her voice softened, she let out a small yawn, leaned on his shoulder, and closed her eyes. In the moonlight, her profile was gentle and serene, her long eyelashes casting a small shadow on her eyelids. Li Hanshan didn't move, just sat there, feeling the warmth and weight on his shoulder.

The golden film at the edge of the dream flowed slowly, like a warm spring current, silently strengthening and nourishing this world that belonged to them.

As long as this dream exists, he will have another world where he can cultivate quietly without being disturbed by the outside world.

Over the past three years of spending time together in dreams, Li Hanshan has gained a deeper understanding of Luo Li. She would occasionally talk about her daily life in the sect, saying that her fellow disciples were very kind to her, that the sect leader valued her highly, and that when she talked about the cultivation techniques and pill formulas she found in the ancient ruins, her tone always carried an undisguised hint of pride.

She also asked him many questions about the Northern Wilderness, about the Hehuan Sect, and about his women. She listened with great interest every time, and sometimes she would ask for details, like a little girl who could never get enough of a story.

These three years were the longest she had ever spent with him.