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

Li Hanshan withdrew his hand, wiping away the remaining sparks from his fingertips. He looked at the woman in white before him and asked, "What are you doing here? Were those people from the Yinquan Sect?"

Shen Qingyue nodded, taking out a pill from her storage bag and swallowing it as she explained, "Many of our disciples were captured by the Yinquan Sect. This time, I was ordered to infiltrate the Demon Sect's territory to find out their whereabouts, but they discovered me. If it weren't for your intervention, Senior, I'm afraid I would already be in their hands." At this point, she solemnly bowed to Li Hanshan again, "May I ask how to address you, Senior?"

"My surname is Li, Li Hanshan." Li Hanshan didn't elaborate on his background, only mentioning casually, "I come from the north and haven't been in Zhongzhou for long, so I don't know much about the situation here yet."

When Shen Qingyue heard "not long after arriving in Zhongzhou," her eyes flickered slightly, but she didn't press the matter. She sheathed her white longsword, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and spoke in a more relaxed tone than before: "Since Senior Li has just arrived from outside, he must not be aware of the situation in Zhongzhou. I am very grateful for your help today, and I have no way to repay you. If there is anything you need to ask, I will answer it to the best of my knowledge."

Li Hanshan had been waiting for this very question. He didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point: "Since you are a disciple of the Immortal Alliance, have you heard of the Yao Guang Sect?"

"The Yaoguang Sect?"

Shen Qingyue repeated the three names, a thoughtful expression on her face, as if she was wondering what sect it belonged to.

Li Hanshan noticed her reaction, and his heart sank slightly, but he remained calm on the surface: "When I was in the Northern Wilderness, I heard people mention this name, saying that the Yaoguang Sect was a major righteous sect in the Central Continent. Now that I've come to the Central Continent, I naturally want to inquire about it."

Shen Qingyue lowered her head and remained silent for a long time. The heat waves of Crimson Flame Valley surged around her, causing the stray hairs on her forehead to sway gently. After a while, she raised her head again, her voice much lower than before: "The Yao Guang Sect was indeed once a major righteous sect, but that was thousands of years ago. Thousands of years ago, the Yao Guang Sect was already destroyed."

Li Hanshan's mind went blank for a moment, and he froze on the spot.

"Destroyed?" His voice was slightly hoarse, a huskiness he himself didn't realize. "How could that be? Are you sure you're talking about the Yao Guang Sect? And not some other sect?"

Seeing his reaction, Shen Qingyue's eyes flashed with confusion, but she still answered truthfully, "This junior is not mistaken. Yaoguang Sect was once one of the top righteous immortal sects in Zhongzhou, occupying the most spiritually abundant Heavenly Vein on Tianyuan Continent. But eight thousand years ago, Yaoguang Sect was reduced to ruins overnight."

"Turn to ruins overnight? Why?"

Li Hanshan was deeply shocked.

Shen Qingyue shook her head: "I don't know either, but it's said... it's related to extraterrestrial demons."

Extraterrestrial demons?

It's another extraterrestrial demon!

The Northern Wilderness Sword Sect was destroyed by the extraterrestrial demons.

But here's the question: if the Yaoguang Sect was destroyed eight thousand years ago, then where are all of Yaya's Yaoguang Sect members now?

Shen Qingyue said with a sigh, "I have read about this history in the records of the Immortal Alliance. It is recorded in great detail. After the destruction of the Yaoguang Sect, the Heavenly Vein and Spiritual Vein were occupied by the Hehuan Sect, and they have been there ever since."

"The Hehuan Sect?"

Li Hanshan, who was pondering various possibilities, was drawn to Shen Qingyue's words.

"Yes, it is said that the Hehuan Sect was built on the site of the Yaoguang Sect."

Shen Qingyue said.

If that's the case, once we get to the main sect of the Hehuan Sect, we might be able to find some information.

"Do you know who the Yaoguang Sect was in the past?" Li Hanshan continued to inquire.

Shen Qingyue shook her head: "I don't know who the Yaoguang Sect was. The records themselves are incomplete, and the history of that period is very fragmented. Most of them only talk about the destruction of the sect, and are vague about the people and events."

Li Hanshan remained silent for a moment. Eight thousand years ago—this point in time is far older than the time when the Hehuan Sect established a branch in the Northern Wilderness. If the Yaoguang Sect perished eight thousand years ago, then what happened to the Yaoguang Sect that Luo Li belonged to? She said in her dream that she was a disciple of the Yaoguang Sect, and the cultivation techniques and pill formulas she taught him were all discovered in ancient ruins. But if the Yaoguang Sect was gone eight thousand years ago, then was the Yaoguang Sect she belonged to rebuilt? Or was it from an even earlier period?

The more he thought about it, the more something seemed off. The things Luo Li taught him—the Yang Ce cultivation method, the Refining Spirit Technique, the Netherworld Record, the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique, the Divine Soul Sword—each one was beyond the scope of the Northern Wilderness cultivation world, enough to arouse covetousness from all sides even in the Central Continent. If she was merely a remnant disciple after the destruction of the Yao Guang Sect, how could she possibly possess so many lost ancient secret techniques? Unless she herself was from that era. But if she was from eight thousand years ago, how did she survive to the present? Reincarnation? Or perhaps, she didn't even live in the "present" timeline, but rather at some point eight thousand years ago, communicating with him across the vast expanse of time?

Countless thoughts churned within Li Hanshan's mind, yet his expression remained calm. Just as he was about to ask something else, his Nascent Soul level divine sense suddenly detected a powerful aura rapidly approaching from the depths of Crimson Flame Valley. The aura was chilling and piercing, carrying a nauseating stench of decay, like a corpse buried in a coffin for hundreds of years suddenly bursting forth from the earth.

"Yinquan Sect!"

Li Hanshan knew that the people from the Yinquan Sect had come after them.

Li Hanshan turned around, his gaze fixed on the rapidly approaching gray-black streak of light. The light was incredibly fast, appearing in his field of vision within moments. As the light faded, it revealed a withered old man, clad in a gray robe embroidered with the same withered well runes as the cultivators from before. He was surrounded by a dense aura of death, his eyes sunken, pupils a deathly gray, making him appear at least ten times more sinister than his pursuers. Behind him, a bronze-colored corpse puppet followed closely behind the light. The puppet was tall, its features indistinct, its skin covered in dense, dark runes, emanating an aura clearly that of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

Shen Qingyue gripped her white longsword tightly, her voice low: "Senior, run! This is a Nascent Soul cultivator, and the bronze corpse behind him is at least a late-stage Nascent Soul! We are no match for him!"

Li Hanshan didn't leave. He stared at the rapidly approaching bronze corpse, pure Yang fire slowly gathering in his palm, but he didn't rush to attack. A bronze corpse at the late Nascent Soul stage could unleash far greater power in the hands of a Yinquan Sect cultivator than an ordinary late Nascent Soul stage cultivator—it felt no pain, knew no fatigue, and could continue fighting until it was completely destroyed as long as its controller's spiritual energy was inexhaustible.

The withered old man stopped a few dozen feet in front of him, his deathly gray gaze sweeping over Li Hanshan and then over Shen Qingyue. A sinister smile appeared on his lips: "You do have some skill, actually killing three disciples of my Yinquan Sect. However, this ends here." He raised his hand and pointed, and the bronze corpse let out a low roar, clenching its fists and smashing them down towards Li Hanshan's head.

The fist strike was fierce, carrying a dense aura of death; wherever it passed, the moisture in the air froze into fine ice crystals. Li Hanshan dodged to the side, and a fireball formed from pure Yang fire slammed into the bronze corpse's chest, producing a muffled boom and scattering sparks. The bronze corpse only took half a step back; the runes on its chest glowed faintly before returning to normal. The fireball had caused it negligible damage.

The withered old man sneered: "The bronze corpse has been tempered with Yin energy for hundreds of years, so ordinary fire-attribute spells are useless against it. Your pure Yang fire does indeed restrain Yin energy, but with this level of fire, you couldn't burn through its defenses even if you had another hundred years."

Li Hanshan did not answer. He dodged the bronze corpse's attack again, while simultaneously using his divine sense to perceive the structure of the corpse puppet. The bronze corpse's runes were deeply engraved, each one embedded in the bones, indeed as the old man had said, impossible to break through with ordinary methods. But suddenly, he felt a warmth in his palm; the broken sword he had stored deep within his storage ring was trembling slightly, as if sensing something.

Without hesitation, he channeled pure Yang energy into the sword, and the broken, jet-black blade was suddenly drawn, tracing a sharp arc through the air. The ancient patterns on the sword's surface lit up instantly, a cold, eerie blue light flowing across its surface, carrying a sharpness that even Li Hanshan himself found chilling, as it slashed without warning towards the bronze corpse's neck.

The broken sword was too fast. So fast that even the withered old man's consciousness couldn't react in time. The sword's edge grazed the bronze corpse's neck, producing a muffled sound like a blade slicing through dry, hard wood. The bronze corpse's body, tempered by Yin energy for hundreds of years, was like a piece of wax being sliced ​​open by a red-hot iron spade; its head and body separated cleanly and decisively.

The bronze corpse's massive body froze for a moment before crashing to the ground.

The withered old man's cold smile froze. He looked down at the bronze corpse whose runic light was slowly dissipating, then looked up at the jet-black broken sword in Li Hanshan's hand, and a trace of genuine fear finally surfaced in his eyes: "What kind of sword is that? How could it possibly cut through my bronze corpse?"

Li Hanshan did not answer. He took a step forward, his broken sword drawing a dark arc in the air, aiming straight for the old man's throat. The old man hastily conjured a gray bone shield to defend himself, but it was cleaved in two by the broken sword. The remaining force of the blade pierced through his left shoulder, pinning him to the rock wall behind him. Pure Yang fire surged into his meridians along the sword, igniting all the remaining Yin energy within him. The withered old man let out a miserable scream, the sound echoing through Crimson Flame Valley for a moment before fading into complete silence.

He drew his broken sword, and the old man's body slid off the rock face, lifeless.