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

The next day, there were even more people in the square than the day before, and even several inner disciples who usually secluded themselves in their caves showed up. The news of Li Hanshan's two consecutive victories had spread, and those who had previously only talked about the "old man from the Northern Wilderness" now looked at him very differently.

The results of the third round of draws were announced—the opponent was a Nascent Soul Peak disciple named Zhou Heng, who cultivated wind-based techniques and was known for his speed.

Chang Sheng's expression relaxed slightly after seeing the matchup list. He leaned against a stone pillar and whispered to Wu Qingfeng beside him, "Zhou Heng's speed ranks among the top five in the peak Nascent Soul stage. No matter how powerful that old man's flames are, it's useless if he can't hit anyone."

Zhou Heng leaped onto the arena, his movements as light as a swallow, a faint blue aura swirling around him, his steps as swift as the wind. A confident smile played on his lips as he fixed his gaze on Li Hanshan, who had stepped onto the arena: "Your fire is indeed impressive, but even the most powerful fire is useless if it doesn't burn the person."

Before he finished speaking, his figure had already vanished from the spot, like a wisp of smoke dissipating into the wind.

Li Hanshan sensed that the figure was moving around the arena at an extremely fast speed, its trajectory unpredictable, sometimes left, sometimes right, like a swallow darting through the air. Zhou Heng's attacks were swift, each strike coming from Li Hanshan's blind spot, with tricky angles and precise force.

But Li Hanshan remained calm. His divine sense, at the Nascent Soul level, covered the entire arena like an invisible net, making Zhou Heng's every movement crystal clear to him.

He didn't deliberately try to catch up with Zhou Heng's speed; he simply stood still, using minimal movements to sidestep, raise his arm, and tilt his head, dodging each and every wind blade. Occasionally, if he couldn't avoid one, he would condense a small fire shield in front of him with pure Yang fire to block it. The sound of the fire shield colliding with the wind blade was crisp and short, like two pieces of hardwood striking each other in mid-air.

Although Zhou Heng was fast, Li Hanshan's divine sense always anticipated his movements a step ahead. A moment later, Zhou Heng revealed a slight flaw during a sideways dash—his figure paused for half a breath during the interval between switching wind-type spells.

Seizing that fleeting moment, Li Hanshan condensed pure Yang fire into a fist-sized fireball in his palm, precisely striking the spot where Zhou Heng was about to land. Zhou Heng felt a sudden burning sensation on the soles of his feet, but it was too late to change direction. The wind blade, barely formed, was shattered by the fireball, and the aftershock sent him staggering several steps to the side, his steps noticeably faltering.

Li Hanshan gave him no chance to regroup. The second fireball followed closely, landing precisely where Zhou Hengxin had been, once again blocking his movement.

Zhou Heng tried several times to regain his speed and rhythm, but was interrupted by the barrage of fireballs, like a river rushing through a narrow channel being blocked by one stone after another. His speed advantage was completely neutralized by Li Hanshan's incredibly accurate prediction, and his movements became increasingly sluggish, while his spiritual energy was consumed faster and faster.

Finally, he was forced to the edge of the arena when a fireball came hurtling towards him, forcing him to leap high into the air to dodge. In that instant, Li Hanshan flashed, leaving an afterimage behind, and appeared directly below Zhou Heng's landing point, raising his hand to unleash a fire shield.

Zhou Heng was sent flying by that palm strike, crashing heavily onto the bluestone ground outside the arena, causing the restrictions on the ground to tremble.

In fact, without the protection of these restrictions, a battle between Nascent Soul stage cultivators could have completely devastated this area.

"Li Hanshan wins." The referee's voice rang out again.

The square fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a cacophony of voices even louder than the day before.

This time, even the previously hesitant voices were completely ignited: "Three consecutive wins! Even Zhou Heng lost!" "Zhou Heng is known for his speed, yet he was completely outmaneuvered by an old man at the third level of the Nascent Soul stage?" "He's not at the third level of the Nascent Soul stage, is he? He's definitely more than that!"

Chang Sheng stood beside the stone pillar, his face so dark it seemed to drip water. Wu Qingfeng, standing beside him, moved his lips, but remained silent. The silence between them carried more weight than any words.

Li Hanshan stepped down from the ring, his face calm and his breathing steady.

He deliberately suppressed his spiritual energy fluctuations to the level of the third level of the Nascent Soul stage, but the combat awareness and precision of his spells displayed in the previous few matches had already made many sharp-eyed disciples begin to doubt his true cultivation level. Chang Sheng stared at his back for a few moments, then turned to Wu Qingfeng and whispered, "Keep a close eye on him. We can't let him win so easily anymore. Arrange for the next round—if the peak Nascent Soul stage isn't enough, arrange for someone at the half-step Divine Transformation stage."

When he returned to his cave, Chu Mengyao saw him enter and reached out to straighten his clothes. "You won, but Chang Sheng definitely won't let this go easily. Who's your opponent in the next round?"

"It hasn't been announced yet." Li Hanshan sat down by the stone couch and stretched his shoulders. "But he'll definitely arrange something even more impressive."

Qin Muyue poked her head out from the inner room: "Half-step Nascent Soul? Even a peak Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't beat you, are they going to send someone directly to the Nascent Soul stage?"

"In the rules of the competition, the Nascent Soul group and the Deity Transformation group are separate." Leng Yue's voice came from the corner, as cold as ever. "Even if a Deity Transformation cultivator comes to participate in the Nascent Soul group, they have to suppress their cultivation. I feel that they will probably send a Half-Step Deity Transformation cultivator first."

That evening, Li Hanshan sat cross-legged in his cave, circulating his spiritual energy through his body for several cycles. Although the matches over the past few days hadn't been particularly difficult, the consecutive battles against late-stage and peak Nascent Soul cultivators had still given him some insights—especially the second match against Li Tong, where the clash between fire-type spiritual energy and pure Yang fire had refined his control over the pure Yang fire even further.

He closed his eyes, sensing the state of the nascent soul within his dantian. The sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage was completely stable, and he was getting closer and closer to the threshold of the seventh level, but there was always something inexplicable missing. It wasn't a lack of spiritual power, nor was it that his meridians weren't wide enough, but rather some more subtle deficiency, as if something was blocking that threshold, preventing him from ever crossing it.

He tried several times to break through the bottleneck, but was bounced back by that invisible barrier each time, like waves crashing against rocks, shattering into mist and never to return. He opened his eyes and frowned. The threshold to the late Nascent Soul stage was more solid than he had imagined.

Shen Ruoxi arrived. She sat down beside the stone bed, her deep eyes lingering on his face for a moment, as if sensing his state. After a while, she slowly spoke: "When I broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, you helped me overcome the bottleneck. Now it's your turn."

Li Hanshan looked at her and said, "Your cultivation has only recently stabilized."

"It's already stable." Shen Ruoxi's tone was filled with an undeniable certainty. "Moreover, the power you poured into me when you helped me break through made my foundation more solid than that of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator. It was just helping you break through to the seventh level of the Nascent Soul stage; it won't damage my foundation."

As she spoke, she raised her hand and untied the belt of her dress, her movements as swift as they had been back in the Northern Wilderness. Li Hanshan looked into her eyes and could see a resolute determination in those deep gazes—she didn't want to owe him anything, nor did she want to see him stuck at a bottleneck, overshadowed by people like Chang Sheng.

Li Hanshan reached out and embraced her waist, pulling her closer. Their spiritual energy rapidly formed a complete cycle under the influence of the Yang Ce technique. When the primordial power belonging to the Nascent Soul stage truly surged into his dantian, the golden light on the surface of his divine infant suddenly intensified. The bottleneck between the sixth and seventh levels of the Nascent Soul stage cracked open like ice being pierced by a red-hot iron rod. Immediately following were second and third cracks, spreading outwards like a spiderweb.

Boom! A deep, muffled roar exploded deep within his dantian, and the light on the surface of his divine infant suddenly more than doubled in brightness, like a lamp wick being lit. Seventh level of the Nascent Soul stage—he had crossed that threshold and officially entered the ranks of the late Nascent Soul stage.

Shen Ruoxi leaned on his shoulder, slightly out of breath, her forehead beaded with sweat, but a hint of relief lingered in her deep eyes. She gently pushed him away: "Alright, don't be too smug. They definitely have a backup plan."

Li Hanshan nodded and closed his eyes to sense his state after the breakthrough.

The total amount and quality of spiritual power at the seventh level of the Nascent Soul stage were significantly higher than those at the sixth level, and the pure Yang energy in his meridians circulated much more smoothly. He began to take stock of his existing techniques—Pure Yang Fire, Flowing Light Sword Technique, Divine Soul Sword, the first stage of the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique, and a trace of ancient sword intent he had comprehended through a dream. Individually, none of these techniques were top-tier, but combined, they were enough to make him invincible in the Nascent Soul stage!

Even if someone enters the Nascent Soul stage from the Deity Transformation stage, as long as their cultivation level is suppressed to the Nascent Soul stage, Li Hanshan is confident that he can beat them senseless.