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

Several days later, Li Hanshan entered the dream again.

The sound of flowing water reached his ears. He opened his eyes and found himself standing by the clear river. The blue stones remained the same, and the distant horizon was shrouded in a thin mist. Having learned from his previous experience, he immediately activated his divine sense, firmly enveloping the invisible membrane at the boundary of the dream, extending its existence to its maximum.

After doing all this, he sat down on the bluestone and waited for Luo Li.

A moment later, ripples appeared in the air ahead, and a white figure emerged from them. Luo Li stood barefoot on the grass, a bright smile on her face.

"Grandpa!" She sat down next to Li Hanshan, tilted her head to examine him for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "Grandpa, your cultivation has improved again!"

Li Hanshan nodded and asked directly without beating around the bush, "Girl, do you know about the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect?"

Luo Li's smile faltered slightly. She looked up, a hint of surprise flashing in her clear eyes: "The Northern Wilderness Sword Sect? How does Master know about this sect?"

"I've been to their ruins," Li Hanshan said.

To her surprise, Luo Li's face lit up with astonishment upon hearing the word "ruins": "Ruins? How could that be? Although the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect has declined, its gates are still there, and its disciples are still around. I just visited the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect a while ago and borrowed a sword manual from one of their elders. How could it have become ruins?"

Li Hanshan was stunned.

"What did you say? The Northern Wilderness Sword Sect is still around?"

"Of course it is." Luo Li nodded matter-of-factly. "Although the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect can't compare to our Yao Guang Sect, it's still a well-known sect. While we don't have many Nascent Soul cultivators, we do have dozens of Core Formation cultivators. Sir, are you sure the place you went to is the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect? And not some other sect's ruins?"

Li Hanshan frowned deeply. He clearly remembered the inscription on the stone tablet.

The Northern Wilderness Sword Sect was destroyed by extraterrestrial demons; all its cultivators perished in battle, and its gates were destroyed. Yet Luo Li claims that the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect still exists, its disciples are still alive, and that she has even visited it.

There is a difference of thousands of years between these two periods.

Just as Li Hanshan was about to explain the situation further, he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

A tremendous sense of crisis surged in. The feeling was indescribable; it wasn't fear or a threat, but rather the feeling that if Li Hanshan spoke, his life would be in danger.

Before Li Hanshan could react, his consciousness was pulled out of the dream by an irresistible force.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

The cave walls were clearly visible in the cold light of the luminous pearl. Hua Nongying lay beside him, breathing heavily, fast asleep. Everything seemed normal, as if the sense of crisis he had just felt was merely an illusion.

But Li Hanshan knew it wasn't true.

He sat up, his back soaked in cold sweat. His heart pounded in his chest, and the spiritual energy within his pure Yang meridians automatically circulated, forming a protective layer around him. He probed the cave with his divine sense; everything within a hundred miles was normal—no powerful enemies, no demonic beasts, nothing at all.

"What's going on...?"

Li Hanshan frowned, utterly perplexed. He had entered the dream world so many times, yet he had never encountered such a situation before. Why did a life-or-death crisis arise the moment he was about to reveal the situation of the Northern Wilderness Sword Sect?

He thought about it for a long time, but had no answer.

Just then, a deep, muffled bell rang out from afar.

thump -- thump -- thump --

The bell's sound was distant and heavy, piercing the night and echoing among the five peaks of the Hehuan Sect. Each toll seemed to strike the heart.

Hua Nongying suddenly sat up in bed, wide awake. She listened intently for a few moments, then her expression changed drastically.

"This is... the summoning bell!" Her voice trembled slightly. "The bell that summons all disciples! Hanlang, get up quickly, something terrible has happened!"

Li Hanshan's heart tightened, and he quickly put on his robes, rushing out of the cave with Hua Nongying. Yun Shuyue also emerged from the cave next door. The three exchanged glances, all seeing solemnity in each other's eyes.

"Walk!"

Three beams of light shot into the sky and flew towards the sect's plaza.

The plaza of the Hehuan Sect was already packed with people.

Countless streaks of light flew in from various mountain peaks and landed on the plaza. There were Golden Core elders, core disciples, inner disciples, outer disciples, and even some faces that Li Hanshan had never seen before. Their auras were terrifyingly deep, clearly those of old monsters who had been in seclusion for many years.

Standing in the crowd, Li Hanshan's gaze swept across the plaza, inwardly marveling. There were at least tens of thousands of disciples in the plaza; this was the first time he had seen the entirety of the Hehuan Sect. Tens of thousands of disciples, plus the elders and deacons hidden in the shadows—the Hehuan Sect's foundation was far deeper than he had imagined.

"Why did you suddenly summon everyone?"

"I don't know. The last time they were summoned was hundreds of years ago when they were besieging the Yinming Sect..."

"I hope nothing serious has happened."

The surrounding disciples whispered amongst themselves, their voices rising and falling. Some looked tense, some curious, and others expressionless, their emotions unreadable.

Hua Nongying leaned close to Li Hanshan's ear and whispered, "Hanlang, summoning the bell is never a big deal. The last time it rang was hundreds of years ago when the sect summoned all its disciples to wage war against the Yinming Sect. This time, it must be something extremely important."