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

Ye Shuanghua kept her word. The next morning, as soon as Li Hanshan stepped into her cave, the stone door closed behind him, the Jinghong Sword was placed beside the stone bed, and the glow of the night-shining pearl enveloped the entire stone chamber in a warm, gentle light.

She stood with her back to Li Hanshan, looking as beautiful as a fairy descending to earth. Li Hanshan looked at her slender figure and could no longer resist. He stepped forward and embraced her, pressing his hand tightly against her pert buttocks.

Immediately afterwards, the pure Yang energy and the pure spiritual power unique to the Heavenly Spiritual Root formed a complete cycle under the guidance of the Yang Book Technique, like two rivers connected end to end, flowing back and forth in each other's meridians.

A month of continuous dual cultivation completely solidified Li Hanshan's foundation, which had recently broken through to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. Ye Shuanghua's spiritual energy was of extremely high quality; each cycle was like polishing jade with fine sandpaper, smoothing out the tiny burrs in his meridians one by one, making the flow of spiritual energy more smooth and unobstructed.

A month later, when he left Ye Shuanghua's cave, he felt that the divine infant in his dantian was several times more solid than when he had just broken through. He returned to his own cave, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for several cycles before sinking his divine sense into the depths of his consciousness.

That familiar pull quickly led him to the riverbank. Moonlight spilled onto the water, turning the entire river a silvery white. Luo Li was sitting on a blue stone, her bare feet gently dangling. When she saw him appear, her eyes curved into crescent moons.

"Grandpa, you've been cultivating very diligently lately." She patted the spot next to her. "Has your peak Nascent Soul stage been stabilized?"

Li Hanshan sat down beside her: "I just finished consolidating. With Senior Sister Ye's help, it was much faster than if I had secluded myself." He briefly recounted the sect competition, mentioning that Ye Shuanghua had advised him not to rush to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, but to stay in the Core Formation group and have a better chance of winning first place.

After listening, Luo Li tilted her head and thought for a moment, "What she said makes sense. However..." She glanced at Li Hanshan, a hint of cunning in her eyes, "Grandpa, have you ever considered that if there were a way to keep your cultivation at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, but allow your soul to break through to the Deity Transformation stage first?"

Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat: "What do you mean?"

Luo Li didn't answer immediately, but instead stretched out her finger and drew a few strokes in the air. Pale golden runes appeared like fireflies, dancing on her fingertips, eventually coalescing in mid-air into a complex meridian diagram. The diagram marked dozens of acupoints and the flow of spiritual energy, with a golden light in the center, shaped like a rising sun.

"The Double Yang Embryo." Luo Li's voice carried an unusual solemnity. "This is a secret technique I unearthed from an extremely ancient fragment. Cultivators need to nurture a 'Embryo Embryo' in their sea of ​​consciousness with pure Yang energy when they are at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. Once the Embryo is formed, the soul can separate from the physical body and exist independently, much like the primordial spirit of a Nascent Soul cultivator. In this way, although your cultivation level is still at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, your soul has already crossed the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage, and your true combat power is far beyond what a peak Nascent Soul cultivator can achieve."

Li Hanshan stared intently at the meridian diagram, his pure Yang energy circulating in his mind along the marked paths. Sure enough, he sensed a faint warmth emanating from the depths of his consciousness. "This primordial embryo…" he began, "will it affect my breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage?"

"No." Luo Li shook her head. "The Chongyang Primordial Embryo is essentially a nascent primordial spirit that has been condensed in advance. It shares the same origin as the true Nascent Soul primordial spirit in the later stages. When you accumulate enough cultivation to formally break through to the Nascent Soul stage, the Primordial Embryo will automatically merge into the newly formed primordial spirit, just like a sapling growing into a big tree. Not only will it not conflict, but it will also make your Nascent Soul foundation more solid."

As she spoke, she redrawn the meridian diagram, marking every detail more clearly: "However, this secret technique has a threshold—the cultivator's spiritual sense must reach at least the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, otherwise they cannot withstand the impact of the primordial embryo condensation."

"Late stage of Nascent Soul?"

Li Hanshan's current spiritual sense has reached a level comparable to the sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage, but it is still far from the late stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

"Hmm. Grandpa, let me help you." Seeing that Li Hanshan had not made a breakthrough, Luo Li decided to help him.

These days, a single dream can last for several years, with an average interval of more than two months.

So, over the next six months, the two engaged in dual spiritual cultivation in their dreams multiple times, and finally, Li Hanshan's divine consciousness broke through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

It could actually be faster, but Li Hanshan didn't want to do what he had done before, only taking without giving, and he didn't want to affect Yaya.

In addition, perhaps due to the fact that the girl lived thousands of years ago, the effect of their dual cultivation of spirit and soul was ultimately diminished.

"Girl, my divine sense has broken through."

Luo Li grinned and said, "That's simple then. Master, concentrate, and I'll pass on the complete method of Yuan Embryo Formation to you."

After she finished speaking, she raised her hand and placed it on Li Hanshan's brow. A warm stream of soul power flowed from her fingertips into his sea of ​​consciousness, like a spring warmed by the sun, slowly flowing along the meridian chart. Li Hanshan could clearly feel that wherever the soul power passed, an extremely fine golden light began to condense deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, like the first star shining in the night sky.

"The condensation of the primordial embryo requires a continuous nourishment of pure yang energy." Luo Li's voice echoed in his sea of ​​consciousness. "Your Highness needs to circulate your energy at least once a day to allow that wisp of golden light to gradually grow. It will take about one or two years for it to grow from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a pigeon egg. By then, the sect competition should be just beginning."

Li Hanshan sensed the golden dot of light slowly forming in his sea of ​​consciousness, and his resolve hardened even further. He opened his eyes and looked at Luo Li's profile, which appeared exceptionally gentle in the moonlight: "Girl, you've helped me again."

Luo Li waved her hand, her tone light: "Grandpa's dream is so magical, it saved me a lot of time, so we're even."

She yawned slightly, leaned on his shoulder, and closed her eyes. "That's enough for tonight. When you get home, try circulating your primordial energy. If you encounter any problems, come back and tell me next time."

After Li Hanshan woke up, he made sure he knew the flow of spiritual energy at every node by heart before he began to circulate pure Yang energy according to the guidance of the secret method.

A month later, he felt the tiny golden speck of light, the size of a grain of rice, had stabilized, like a seed taking root in the soil. He opened his eyes; the light from the luminous pearl in the cave was soft and warm. The cultivation of the Chongyang Primordial Embryo had only just begun, but he already had a direction.

In the days that followed, Li Hanshan cultivated during the day and circulated his primordial energy through his body at night. Every few days, he would visit Ye Shuanghua to consolidate his foundation, and occasionally he would engage in dual cultivation with Shen Ruoxi. After breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, Shen Ruoxi's cultivation had stabilized at the peak of the first level of the Nascent Soul stage. Each time they cultivated together, she would provide him with pure primordial nourishment. She was calm and quiet, and each time she came, she would sit for a while after their dual cultivation session to help him regulate the flow of spiritual energy in his meridians.

As for Chu Mengyao and Leng Yue, Li Hanshan naturally didn't neglect them either, occasionally engaging in dual cultivation with them. Because their cultivation levels were low, dual cultivation wasn't of much help to Li Hanshan, but it was more beneficial to them.

Fortunately, the quantity is there, so it ultimately plays a significant role.

Li Hanshan would sneak out from Hua Nongying and the others on average once every three months, staying with them for about a week each time. The main sect of the Hehuan Sect didn't control him as tightly as the branch sects, since he wasn't a furnace cauldron but an inner disciple and the sect leader's disciple.

Spring passed and autumn came, and a year slipped away quietly in the midst of busyness. Late that night, Li Hanshan sat cross-legged on the stone bed, guiding the pure yang energy to complete its final cycle in his sea of ​​consciousness, following the path of the Double Yang Primordial Embryo. The golden light spot that was originally only the size of a grain of rice had now grown to the size of a pigeon egg, its surface shimmering with fine golden patterns, like a miniature rising sun suspended in the center of his sea of ​​consciousness, radiating a warm and stable light.

He could sense that the primordial embryo had established a subtle connection with his soul, like the blood ties between an unborn child and its mother. Although it was not yet fully formed, he could already perceive more subtle fluctuations of spiritual energy through it, and his affinity for the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had increased significantly compared to before.

He opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath. The moonlight outside the window was perfect, and starlight filtered through the cracks in the cave door, scattering across the bluestone floor in a shimmering silver glow. He sensed the primordial embryo quietly rotating in his sea of ​​consciousness, and then sensed the state of the divine infant in his dantian. Although there was no direct spiritual connection between the two, there was a faint sense of resonance, as if they were waiting for the right moment to completely merge.

"In another year," he calculated silently, "the primordial embryo should be fully formed. By then, even if my cultivation level is still at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, my primordial spirit will have already stepped into the threshold of the Deity Transformation stage. The Centennial Grand Competition... will come in handy."

Moreover, after the appearance of the Pure Yang Primordial Embryo, Li Hanshan felt that once he broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, his Primordial Spirit would probably be much stronger than that of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator.