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

The morning light shone through the dark red light curtain of the array wall, casting dappled shadows in the valley.

After Li Hanshan finished his dual cultivation with Yin Lingyue, the pure Yang energy within his body was circulating steadily. After several more days of recuperation, Yin Lingyue's spiritual power had recovered considerably. Although most of it was still sealed, she was at least no longer as unsteady as she had been a month ago.

She sat opposite him, having changed out of her grey robe into a clean one, her long hair casually draped over her shoulders. Although her complexion was still somewhat pale, her dark purple eyes had regained their light.

"Come on, help me get dressed."

Li Hanshan gave the instructions.

Despite her reluctance, Yin Lingyue still dressed Li Hanshan like a little slave girl, congratulating him on his success.

After getting dressed, Li Hanshan pulled her close again and tasted her cherry lips.

Li Hanshan prepared to inquire about the Yinquan Sect's situation. "How large is the Yinquan Sect's territory?"

Yin Lingyue: "The Yinquan Sect occupies a large area north of Zhongzhou. The core area alone covers hundreds of thousands of miles, and its outer sphere of influence extends to the edge of the Endless Sea. The Yin Caves you visited before are all within my jurisdiction."

"Your territory?" Li Hanshan raised an eyebrow. "What is your status within the Yinquan Sect?"

Yin Lingyue looked away, her tone tinged with resentment yet she still answered truthfully: "Core disciple. Core disciples at the Nascent Soul stage can be allocated their own territory within the Yinquan Sect. The territory I was allocated spans tens of thousands of miles, and those Yin caves and Yin veins are all resources within my territory."

She paused for a moment, then added, "There are at least dozens of core disciples like me in the Yinquan Sect. There are also some deacons at the Nascent Soul stage, and above them are elders, all at the Void Refinement stage."

"What about the strongest one? Has he reached the Dao Integration stage yet?"

"Um."

Yin Lingyue nodded.

It seems that the overall strength of the Yinquan Sect is no less than that of the Hehuan Sect.

These major sects in the Central Continent are indeed profound in their foundations. They have dozens of core disciples at the Nascent Soul stage, several Void Refinement elders, and even Dao Integration level experts in charge.

"Do the cultivators of your Yinquan Sect usually rely on refining corpses to improve their cultivation?" he asked.

Yin Lingyue shook her head, her tone somewhat honest: "Corpse refining is just one method. The Yinquan Sect's cultivation techniques are based on Yin Sha Qi. Besides corpse refining, there are other branches such as soul nourishing, Yin Sha devouring, and corpse puppet control. The truly core disciples mostly focus on soul nourishing and Yin Sha body devouring. Corpse refining can also improve cultivation and increase one's abilities."

As she spoke, she glanced at Li Hanshan, her gaze carrying a complex expression: "Those Yin acupoints you destroyed before were mostly guarded by Nascent Soul stage disciples. They were responsible for collecting Yin essence and handing it over to their superiors in exchange for cultivation techniques and spirit stones. Although the Yin Spring Sect's cultivation techniques are heretical, they have very strict controls over lower-level cultivators. Those who were turned into corpse puppets... were mostly cultivators captured from outside."

She paused, her voice lowering slightly, "Our Yinquan Sect disciples generally don't harm mortals. There are too many mortals, and only a minority of them have spiritual roots. It's far more worthwhile for us to wait for them to grow naturally before absorbing them into the sect than to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs."

Li Hanshan nodded. He was familiar with this logic—although demonic sects act ruthlessly, they wouldn't really treat ordinary people as disposable commodities.

Although there are many mortals, only a tiny fraction can truly be transformed into combat power through cultivation. Moreover, the benefits of killing a hundred mortals are not as substantial as capturing a single Qi Refining cultivator.

There are exceptions, such as the Yinming Sect, which differs from the Yinquan Sect by only one character. However, the cultivators of the Yinming Sect are still too terrifying, as they are known to massacre cities and destroy countries at will.

It is probably because of this that the Yinming Sect was destroyed by a joint force.

The security has tightened, preventing outsiders from getting in, which has actually made life safer for ordinary people. At least they no longer have to worry about being captured by a passing rogue cultivator and having their souls refined.

Li Hanshan asked a few more questions about the internal power structure of the Yinquan Sect—which elders were close to each other, which were at odds, and roughly what level of cultivation the sect leader was at the Dao Integration stage—Yin Lingyue answered truthfully most of them, but occasionally, when it came to things she wasn't quite sure about, she would shake her head and say she didn't know.

After asking the questions, Li Hanshan prepared to leave.

On this trip, Xiao An successfully broke through to the Nascent Soul stage and also gained a female slave at the Nascent Soul stage, which can be described as a very fruitful trip.

But he was not yet ready to return to Huanzong.

Here at Yinlingyue, only three petals of the flower have opened. Li Hanshan is worried that this is not enough and wants the flower to open to six petals, or even fully open.

Therefore, Li Hanshan prepared to go to the Endless Sea to check on Hua Nongying and the others.

There are still several years until the sect's centennial competition. This round trip will give us plenty of time. We can use this time to properly train Yin Lingyue and help her break through to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.

As for reaching the Nascent Soul stage, Li Hanshan wasn't very confident, given the short timeframe.