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

About two weeks later, Li Hanshan and Xiao An appeared at the edge of a swamp shrouded in grayish-white mist.

The swamp looked unremarkable, with withered bushes leaning crookedly in the mud, and occasionally a few low-level demonic beasts would dart across the puddles, kicking up a trail of murky water. But after hovering above the swamp for a moment, Xiao An's eerie green eyes locked onto an inconspicuous mud puddle in the center of the swamp.

"There's something down there." Her voice entered Li Hanshan's mind. "It's very deep, and the concentration is higher than all the previous places combined. It should be the confluence of a tributary of a main vein."

Li Hanshan landed on a withered tree at the edge of the swamp, and his divine sense cautiously probed into the ground in the direction Xiao An had pointed out. He could indeed sense an extremely faint fluctuation of yin energy seeping out from the depths of the swamp, like a dark spring covered by thick silt, only occasionally letting out a wisp of coldness through a crack.

If Xiao An's perception of Yin energy were not far superior to that of ordinary cultivators, he would not have noticed anything unusual even if he flew over this mud pit ten times.

"The monks guarding the town?" he asked.

Xiao An remained silent for a moment, a faint blue light emanating from the surface of her soul, clearly indicating she was fully focused on sensing the situation underground. A moment later, she opened her eyes: "One peak Nascent Soul cultivator, two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, and six cultivators below the early Nascent Soul stage. There are quite a few corpse puppets; the strongest is a half-step Silver Corpse."

Li Hanshan made a quick calculation in his mind. The strength of a half-step silver corpse was between the peak of the Nascent Soul stage and the Divine Transformation stage, equivalent to an existence of Wang Hao's level.

They were even more difficult to deal with than Wang Hao in battle, because these corpse monsters were too tough.

However, this was not a problem for Li Hanshan, who possessed a short sword. With the addition of three Nascent Soul cultivators and other corpse puppets, the difficulty of a direct assault was much greater than that of other Yin Caves.

Of course, this is still not a problem for him.

"Does it have a Nascent Soul stage?" he asked the most crucial question.

Xiao An shook his head: "No. But there's the aura of an array below, probably the defensive barrier of the Yin Cave. If we can't finish this quickly, we'll be trapped inside once the barrier is activated."

Li Hanshan pondered for a moment, then made a decision: "I'll go in first and deal with that Nascent Soul Peak cultivator and the half-step Silver Corpse. You stay at the entrance and block the activation node of the restriction. Once we succeed, immediately absorb the Yin energy, absorb as much as you can. We must withdraw within half an hour."

"Understood," Xiao An replied.

Li Hanshan didn't delay any longer. His pure Yang energy circulated rapidly through his meridians, suppressing his aura to a minimum, like a stone sinking silently into a muddy pool. The muddy water, carrying the scent of decaying vegetation, surged in from all directions, but the extremely thin pure Yang shield around him kept the filth out, making him like a fish swimming through the mud.

He continued downwards for about a hundred feet before the muddy water suddenly disappeared, revealing him in a dry passage. The stone walls on either side of the passage were also inlaid with tiny fragments of Yin Sha crystals, emitting a cold, eerie green light that illuminated a half-open stone door at the end of the passage. From within the stone door, the faint hum of incantations and deep commands could be heard.

Without hesitation, Li Hanshan transformed into a streak of purple-gold light, silently passing through the crack in the stone gate. The cave behind the stone gate was more spacious than any other Yin Cave he had ever seen before, with walls tens of feet high. In the center stood an altar about three feet high, covered with dense gray runes. Sitting cross-legged in the very center was a gaunt old man with a calm and heavy aura; he was the guardian at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.

Below the altar, two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators were directing a dozen or so corpse puppets to form an array. In the shadows surrounding the cave, even more corpse puppets stood motionless, like sculptures frozen in time.

Li Hanshan's divine sense locked onto the half-silver corpse on the altar—it stood three steps behind the old man, its entire body gleaming with a dark, silvery-gray luster, its eyes tightly closed, like a meticulously polished stone statue. But the faint yet palpable pressure emanating from it was enough to send chills down one's spine.

He didn't give the other party time to react.

The sword of divine souls silently sprang from the sea of ​​consciousness, passing over the heads of the two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, and precisely pierced the sea of ​​consciousness of the old man on the altar. The old man was closing his eyes and circulating his cultivation technique when the sword light suddenly slashed into his sea of ​​consciousness. It was as if a red-hot iron rod had been plunged into the back of his head. His body stiffened abruptly, and even his fingers, which were forming hand seals, stopped moving.

Taking advantage of that momentary pause, Li Hanshan leaped up. Pure Yang fire condensed in his hand into a purple-gold flame sword, which he slashed at the neck of the half-step silver corpse on the altar.

At the same time, the broken sword slid out from his sleeve, its dark sword light carrying the ancient sword intent he had comprehended, sweeping towards the two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

The half-step silver corpse also lost control the moment the old man's consciousness was interrupted. Its body froze on the spot, and the flaming longsword accurately struck the core of the rune on its neck.

The purplish-gold flames surged into the crack like magma, hissing as they burned the runes. Although the defense of the half-step silver corpse far surpassed that of an ordinary corpse puppet, the pure yang fire was precisely the nemesis of yin energy, and the layer of silver-gray runes began to rapidly disintegrate under the continuous burning of the flames.

The two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators were forced to retreat hastily by the dark sword light. One of them was half a step too slow and was grazed on the left shoulder by the sword light, his entire arm severed at the root, black blood gushing out. The other was deathly pale and desperately tried to unleash his magic to counterattack, but Li Hanshan's second sword had already followed closely behind.

Chaos erupted inside the cave.

The low-level cultivators, like a disturbed swarm of ants, tried to escape through the passage, only to find that the entrance was completely sealed off by a layer of dark blue soul power barrier. The barrier emanated pure Yin soul power, and anyone who approached was repelled. It was Xiao An guarding the activation node of the restriction from the outside.

On the altar, the old man barely recovered from the impact of the Divine Soul Sword, only to find that his treasured half-step silver corpse had lost most of its combat power, with cracks covering the core of the runes and the silver-gray light rapidly dimming.

He let out a hoarse roar, his hands forming hand seals as he tried to activate the defensive barrier in the cave, only to find that the barrier could not be activated at all—the spiritual energy flow at the entrance had been cut off by a pure Yin spirit power.

Li Hanshan did not give him any more chances.

The flaming longsword drew a near-perfect arc in the air, carrying the lingering warmth of pure yang fire, and pierced through his dantian. The old man struggled twice, then the light in his eyes completely faded.

The battle in the cave was nearing its end within a few dozen breaths. One of the two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators was dead, and the other was seriously injured. The lower-level cultivators scattered and fled, but were trapped by Xiao An's soul power barrier and were eventually wiped out one by one. Li Hanshan finished off the seriously injured man with a sword strike, then retreated to the entrance of the passage to protect Xiao An.

Xiao An swept in from outside the passage and sat cross-legged in the center of the altar, her hands forming a mudra. The essence of the Yin meridians deep underground, like water released from a sluice gate, began to converge on her wildly.

The dense, almost solidified black mist formed a huge vortex in mid-air, which was completely absorbed, compressed, and condensed by her soul, turning into beads of yin energy.

Li Hanshan stood at the entrance of the passage, his Nascent Soul level divine sense fully extended, sensing every movement above the swamp. Three hours had passed, and Xiao An had already obtained a large number of Yin Qi Pearls.

At this moment, Li Hanshan sensed something, and his expression suddenly changed.

An extremely powerful aura was rapidly approaching from the south, its speed far exceeding that of a Nascent Soul cultivator. The aura was chilling and bone-piercing, carrying a decaying yet tyrannical sense of oppression, like the eerie wind surging from an ancient tomb that had been unearthed. Even from dozens of miles away, it was enough to cause the meridians of a Nascent Soul cultivator to stagnate.

Grandma Yin.

She's here again!