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

"What's wrong?" Ye Shuanghua's voice came from the side.

She took a few steps closer, placed her hand on the hilt of the sword, and glanced at his pale face and the rune that was slowly fading away.

Li Hanshan shook his head and did not answer immediately.

He sensed his meridians—his spiritual energy was flowing normally, with no lingering abnormal energy. The gray mist seemed to have vanished the moment he withdrew his hand, leaving no trace. But the chill in his heart lingered, like a tiny thorn piercing the depths of his soul.

"It's nothing." He stood up, his voice now steady, only a slight tremor at the end betraying the lingering effects of the earlier disturbance. "The formation is too old; the surge of spiritual energy briefly affected my meridians. It's nothing serious."

Ye Shuanghua looked at him, her gaze lingering for a moment on the cold sweat remaining on his forehead, but she did not ask any further questions.

She simply nodded, raised her hand, and used magic to cover the newly exposed stone slab. The soil and moss slowly closed up, burying the runes back into the ground.

"Let's go," she said. "We shouldn't stay here any longer. We'll leave once the protective barrier reopens."

Li Hanshan did not refute. He followed Ye Shuanghua towards the edge of the medicinal field. After walking several dozen feet, he couldn't help but look back at the stone slab that had been reburied. The light of the runes had completely disappeared, and the ground had returned to its original appearance, showing no abnormalities.

But the last words spoken by that voice lingered in his mind like a boulder sunk into deep water, unable to dissipate for a long time.

The voice knew him too well, hitting all his weaknesses with pinpoint accuracy, as if it had seen through all his desires and fears before he even opened his mouth.

They even glimpsed the deepest secret in his heart.

This feeling is awful.

The opponent was still sealed in the ancient formation, yet he possessed such abilities.

It's not hard to imagine how terrifying the opponent's strength is.

If the opponent were to break free, Li Hanshan, and even Ye Shuanghua, would likely have no chance of resistance.

The other party knows the secret of the destruction of the Yaoguang Sect, and may even have met Luo Li.

"No...not necessarily."

Li Hanshan shook his head.

The things the other party mentioned might not have been things it had actually seen, but rather things it had glimpsed from the depths of Li Hanshan's heart.

No matter what.

Li Hanshan decided that he would never come into contact with this ancient formation again until he had sufficient strength.

The two waited at the edge of the medicinal field for about a day and a half.

The pale golden natural barrier rose and fell slowly like the tide. Finally, at dusk on the second day, a crack about the width of a person appeared in a certain place in the barrier. The light flowing at the edge was a little dimmer than the surrounding light, as if it had been opened up by an invisible force.

Without hesitation, Ye Shuanghua grabbed Li Hanshan's arm and slipped into the crevice. The moment they passed through the barrier, Li Hanshan felt a slight pressure coming from all directions, as if he were passing through a thick curtain of water.

Immediately afterwards, the view suddenly opened up, and gray-brown mountains and sparse shrubs reappeared in front of us, the rich medicinal fragrance in the air replaced by the rough mountain smell.

They returned to the outer region of the Wanling Mountains.

Without lingering, Ye Shuanghua summoned a silver shuttle, and the two jumped onto the flying boat, speeding towards the direction of the Hehuan Sect.

Li Hanshan stood at the ship's railing, watching the mountains and rivers rushing past below, but the gray mist inside the rune kept replaying in his mind.

He tried to use his Nascent Soul level divine sense to carefully examine his meridians to confirm whether the gray mist still remained—but there was nothing. However, the feeling of being gently tugged by something lingered, like an invisible thread, entangled somewhere.

"What are you thinking about?" Ye Shuanghua's voice came from the bow of the ship.

Li Hanshan snapped out of his reverie: "Nothing. I was just thinking about the array formation in that medicinal field."

Ye Shuanghua was silent for a moment, then her tone became more serious than usual: "Not many people know about the existence of that ancient medicinal herb field. I discovered it by chance while traveling many years ago, and I've never told anyone. You must never tell anyone."

Li Hanshan nodded: "I understand."