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

A moment of silence fell over the cave. Li Hanshan's words lingered in the air, and Ye Shuanghua's gaze shifted from the cave wall to his face.

"Aren't you afraid I'll drain you dry?" she asked, her voice revealing neither joy nor anger.

Li Hanshan leaned against the stone wall, his expression calm: "Senior Sister, although I was almost drained dry by you last time in the sea, I carefully reviewed my meridians afterward and found that my soul was more solid than before. Moreover, I also want to help you, Senior Sister."

He paused, his tone softening slightly: "You're definitely not fully recovered yet, and the battle just now was very taxing. Perfect, your junior brother can help you. And your Nascent Soul essence can further refine my soul. It's a win-win situation; neither of us loses out."

Ye Shuanghua stared at him for a long while. The faint howl of the giant wolf echoed from outside the cave, reverberating through the mountain walls and sounding exceptionally desolate.

She said, "You almost turned into a dried-up human last time, and you still dare to mention it?"

"It's precisely because I was almost drained of my life force that I understand even more clearly how pure Senior Sister's Nascent Soul essence is." Li Hanshan looked at her, his tone calm yet earnest. "That kind of tempering effect is far faster than my own arduous cultivation. If Senior Sister is willing, we can cooperate long-term."

Ye Shuanghua didn't answer immediately. Leaning against the rock wall, her gaze fell on a tiny crack in the cave ceiling, lost in thought. Li Hanshan didn't urge her either, waiting quietly.

After a long silence, Ye Shuanghua finally spoke, her voice lower than before: "You're right. Pure Yang energy can indeed accelerate the repair of meridians." She looked up at him, "But this time, if I drain you dry again, I won't stop."

"I trust my senior sister; she won't drain me dry," Li Hanshan said.

The two stared at each other for a moment, then Ye Shuanghua remained silent. She looked away and loosened the sash of her outer robe. Her movements were still swift and decisive, without any hesitation, but Li Hanshan noticed that her fingers were a fraction slower than usual—a sign of hesitation.

He didn't say much, but moved closer to her and placed his hand on her waist. Ye Shuanghua's body tensed slightly, then relaxed.

This dual cultivation session was much gentler than the last. Ye Shuanghua didn't rush to break through her bottleneck, and Li Hanshan wasn't pulled away by the out-of-control suction force. Both of them consciously controlled the flow of spiritual energy, allowing the pure yang energy and the Nascent Soul origin to slowly merge in a cycle. The temperature in the cave gradually rose, and the cold light from the luminous pearl cast overlapping shadows on the stone walls.

Ye Shuanghua's breathing became slightly more rapid than before, but she remained silent. Her fingers clenched her robes slightly, then relaxed, repeating this several times. When the pure yang energy had repaired most of the cracks in her meridians, her breathing became noticeably more stable, and her recovery speed far exceeded that of relying solely on elixirs.

While regulating his circulation, Li Hanshan quietly sent a wisp of his divine sense into Ye Shuanghua's dantian. Her primordial spirit, at the fourth level of the Nascent Soul stage, was almost fused with her body, yet still manifested within her dantian, like a silvery-white full moon suspended in its center, its surface shimmering with fine spiritual light and radiating a calm and vast pressure. At the edge of her primordial spirit, a seed of Yin markings he had planted previously lay dormant, slightly deeper than before, yet still undetected.

He carefully guided an extremely subtle wisp of spiritual energy, reinforcing it along the edge of the Yin-patterned seed.

Ye Shuanghua's primordial spirit trembled slightly, but quickly returned to calm. She seemed to have sensed something, her brows furrowing very slightly, but she couldn't discern the source of the anomaly amidst the restorative sensation brought by the pure yang energy.

"Focus," she said, her voice unusually weak.

Li Hanshan withdrew his divine sense and focused his attention back on the cycle of dual cultivation.

The pure yang energy and the origin of the spirit flowed back and forth between the two, like an invisible river connecting their meridians.

Ye Shuanghua's injuries were steadily recovering, while Li Hanshan's soul was becoming more solid under the tempering of the Divine Transformation Origin. The blade of the Divine Soul Sword in his sea of ​​consciousness trembled slightly, and its luster became even brighter.

Several muffled howls came from outside the cave, indistinct through the stone wall, as if they came from a very far place.

Li Hanshan didn't pay attention to what was being said; he simply maintained the dual cultivation cycle in its most stable state.

He knew such opportunities were rare, so he could temper himself for as long as possible. At the same time, he quietly pushed the reinforcement of the Yin pattern to the stable stage after the seed took shape—not to force the flower to bloom, but to make the roots grow deeper.

About an hour later, the two finally finished their dual cultivation.

Ye Shuanghua cast a cleansing spell, washing away the traces left by Li Hanshan. She straightened up, retied the sash of her outer robe, her movements as swift as ever, only a faint blush remaining at the base of her ears betraying the lingering afterglow. She moved her wrists, sensing the spiritual energy flowing smoothly through her meridians again, and nodded slightly.

"Your meridians have recovered about 70-80%." She looked at Li Hanshan, her tone returning to its usual cool indifference. "The pure Yang energy was indeed effective."

Li Hanshan also stood up and stretched his limbs. He felt that the sword of his soul in his sea of ​​consciousness was sharper than before, and his spiritual energy flowed more smoothly. Although he was still somewhat depleted, he was much better than when he was completely drained last time.

"If you'd like, you can come often in the future," he said.

Ye Shuanghua glanced at him, neither replying nor denying. After a moment of silence, she simply said, "Let's figure out how to get out first."