After Li Yundong and Ziyuan returned from their spiritual journeys, one as a Yin Spirit and the other as a Yang Spirit, they drifted and flew through the air. Li Yundong felt as light as nothing; with a mere thought, he could shoot thousands of meters in an instant, a speed far surpassing that of his physical body when flying.

Ziyuan's Yang Spirit was indistinguishable from her physical body, even down to the exact same clothing. It was as if one person had split into two. After watching Li Yundong roam freely in the sky for a while, she suddenly asked, "Do you know the biggest difference between a Yin Spirit and a Yang Spirit?"

Li Yundong stopped then, shaking his head with a smile. "Even though I seem quite capable in combat now, I am still far behind in actual cultivation. Venerable Ziyuan, don't keep me in suspense. Please guide this newcomer."

Ziyuan smiled faintly and beckoned him over. "Follow me."

The two quickly flew down to the ground. It was deep in the night, and they had flown to the outskirts, nearly to the barren wilderness—they weren't afraid of being seen.

After landing, Ziyuan broke off a branch from a nearby tree and toyed with it in her hand, saying with a smile, "You try."

Li Yundong laughed, "What's so hard about that?" As he spoke, he reached out to snap a branch near him, but as his hand touched it, he found it passed right through.

Li Yundong paused, astonished. "I can't touch any physical object?"

Ziyuan nodded and smiled. "Exactly! That is the greatest difference between the Yin Spirit and the Yang Spirit!"

Li Yundong chuckled. "Then traveling as a Yin Spirit is very much like the soul leaving the body?"

Ziyuan replied, "That's fair to say. I explained how to cultivate the divine abilities of the Fifth Heaven to you before; today, I will explain the cultivation of the Sixth Heaven's Nascent Soul."

Li Yundong’s expression turned serious. He formed a palm with one hand and bowed respectfully. "Venerable Ziyuan, I humbly request your instruction!"

Ziyuan, still turning the branch she had picked up by the roadside, smiled and said, "When a cultivator perfects the divine abilities of the Fifth Heaven to a certain degree, Heaven itself begins to brew the Heavenly Tribulation, preparing to strike the cultivator down. According to normal rules of cultivation, if the Heavenly Thunder strikes a person squarely, whether you are a Great Golden Immortal or a High Celestial of the Nine Heavens, it is an undeniable death sentence. This is because no matter how strong the physical body is, it cannot be stronger than Heavenly Thunder. There is only one thing capable of enduring the might of Heavenly Thunder..."

Before Ziyuan finished speaking, Li Yundong's eyes lit up, and he interjected, "I know! It’s the out-of-body Yin Spirit or Yang Spirit!"

Ziyuan smiled faintly. "The Yin Spirit is merely the preliminary stage of the Sixth Heaven. It is the energy form transformed from your internal elixir. However, this energy form is quite thin and weak, so it cannot touch anything. If you dared to touch the Heavenly Tribulation with your Yin Spirit, the result would certainly be the Yin Spirit being struck into oblivion, leaving you a mere walking corpse afterward."

"Only by cultivating the Yin Spirit to the level of the Yang Spirit, when this energy form becomes robust and condensed, can you withstand the Heavenly Thunder. You must know that during the true passing of the Thunder Tribulation, one places their Yang Spirit directly into the rolling, thundering storm clouds, enduring countless flashes of lightning—that is what passing the Heavenly Tribulation means."

"The preliminary stage of the Sixth Heaven is called Nascent Transformation (). As the name implies, it is when your internal elixir transforms into an infant-like human form. You mentioned that during your cultivation of the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, your Yin Spirit once left your body; that moment of departure was your newly formed Yin Spirit taking a peek at the world. Your current Yin Spirit has already grown to resemble a youth; this is the intermediate stage of the Sixth Heaven, Infant Formation (), meaning your internal Yin Spirit is slowly taking shape."

"When you continuously cultivate your Yin Spirit to be stronger and more robust, it will slowly transform into a Yang Spirit. This means your energy form will become increasingly powerful and condensed, allowing you to touch other objects, just like an ordinary person. This marks your arrival at the advanced stage of the Sixth Heaven: Primordial Nascent Soul (), which is the Yang Spirit realm."

"Don't let my lesser fighting prowess fool you now. If it truly came down to a fight to the death, if I released my Yang Spirit, it would instantly become a two-on-one situation. One-on-one, I am no match for you, but two-on-one, you are certainly no match for me. Even taking it a step further—even if two-on-one I still couldn't defeat you—I could still have my Yang Spirit flee, hide in a corner you could never find, slowly look for a suitable Cauldron, endure the humiliation, and plot a comeback. Look at Yan Fang: in terms of combat strength, she might not be Liu Ye's match, but when her Yang Spirit escaped, everyone fighting, including Liu Ye, could not stop her."

Ziyuan spoke languidly. "A person who has cultivated to the Primordial Nascent Soul realm has transcended life and death and reincarnation. As long as the Yang Spirit is not destroyed, they can live forever simply by continuously possessing new bodies. This is the great power of the highest realm of the Nascent Soul."

Li Yundong suddenly understood. "Ah, so you held back during our last spar! Cunning, truly cunning! I must have a real contest with you another day!"

Ziyuan smiled faintly. "No need for a contest. Without the Yang Spirit assisting two-on-one, your True Essence is so vast and powerful that I am no match; I readily concede defeat. But even if I can't beat you, you can't destroy me either, because you haven't reached the highest peak of the Nascent Soul realm. If you run into a Grandmaster-level cultivator you can't defeat, yet you lack the ability for your Yang Spirit to flee, then you will truly be utterly helpless."

Li Yundong laughed. "I see. After cultivating to the Yang Spirit stage in the Sixth Heaven, one can not only add a clone to assist in the attack but, when necessary, can also sacrifice the physical body and have the Yang Spirit escape the pursuers?"

Ziyuan smiled. "Precisely!"

Li Yundong, still puzzled, asked, "Since you have manifested your Yang Spirit now, doesn't that mean you can undergo the Heavenly Tribulation?"

Ziyuan shook her head. "No. A cultivator reaching the Yang Spirit realm has only transcended life, death, and reincarnation, but they have not transcended the constraints between Heaven and Earth. They must cultivate their Yang Spirit to the Gold Body realm of the Seventh Heaven before they can challenge the Heavenly Thunder. Otherwise, no matter how robust and condensed the Yang Spirit is, it cannot withstand the might of the Heavenly Thunder."

Li Yundong exclaimed, "I remember now! During the previous battle at the Fox Zen Gate with the various major sects, I heard some cultivators from other sects saying that currently, no one in this world has managed to cultivate to the Gold Body realm?"

Ziyuan nodded, then shook her head. "Looking at the current cultivation world, that is indeed the case. However, the Six Great Sects, the True One Sect, and the Buddhist cultivation sects like the Southern and Northern Chan Schools and the Huayan School are deeply rooted and possess hidden masters. It's hard to say if there isn't a senior cultivator who has emerged after years of seclusion to reach that level. However, as far as I know, the head of the True One Sect, Heavenly Master Zhang, seems to be close to that realm."

Li Yundong contemplated for a moment, then asked, "I also seem to have heard people say that only by consuming the Earth Origin Spirit Elixir can one reach this realm?"

Ziyuan chuckled. "That is theoretical. There are three great immortal elixirs in this world: the Heaven Origin Immortal Elixir, the Earth Origin Spirit Elixir, and the Human Origin Golden Elixir. You consumed the lowest ranked, the Human Origin Golden Elixir, and instantly leaped to become a renowned cultivator. If you had consumed the Earth Origin Spirit Elixir, what level do you think you would have reached?"

Li Yundong listened, feeling a sense of yearning. "I wonder how the Earth Origin Spirit Elixir is refined."

Ziyuan said, "The method for refining the Earth Origin Spirit Elixir has been lost for nearly five hundred years; it's better if you don't dwell on it. Cultivation must be done step by step; slow and steady effort is better."

Li Yundong nodded in agreement.

As the two were conversing pleasantly, they suddenly heard a faint, distant call: "Excuse me, are you True Person Li Yundong?"

Li Yundong and Ziyuan were startled simultaneously. They both turned toward the direction of the sound and sharply demanded, "Who!"

Li Yundong focused his sight and saw a woman in a long yellow gown standing in the pitch-black night, where one could not see one's hand before one's face. This woman was exquisitely beautiful, slender, delicate, and stood gracefully.

Under normal circumstances, this woman would have been a captivating beauty full of charm, but in the deep darkness and the desolate wilderness, such a beauty appearing here was obviously unnatural.

Ziyuan's gaze was piercing; she saw through the woman's true nature immediately and whispered to Li Yundong, "This is an out-of-body Yin Spirit, and she carries a heavy demonic aura."

Li Yundong sternly called out, "Who are you? How do you know me?"

Although Li Yundong was traveling as a Yin Spirit, his vital Yang energy was still overwhelmingly vigorous. The yellow-clad woman dared not approach from afar. When she stopped about five meters away from Li Yundong, she murmured, "True Person Li, you once saved my life and my husband's. Have you forgotten?"

Li Yundong was completely bewildered. "When did I ever save you and your husband?"

The yellow-clad woman glanced at Ziyuan, her eyes full of caution, and softly whispered, "At the West Garden..."

Li Yundong suddenly realized—could these be those two golden snakes he had let go?

Li Yundong looked at her with suspicion and asked, "Why are you looking for me? Aren't you afraid I'll capture you? The person next to me is Venerable Ziyuan of the Spirit Palace Sect; she is a good friend of mine. Just speak plainly; there's no need to hesitate."

The yellow-clad woman sighed softly, her eyes brimming with tears. "My husband and I were originally two golden snakes cultivating quietly at the foot of Donghua Mountain. A few days ago, my husband heard that the Immortal Pen and the Medicine King Cauldron were about to appear, and he developed worldly ambitions, saying he wanted to see the mortal world. I tried hard to dissuade him to no avail, so I had no choice but to follow him out of the mountains."

"But unexpectedly, when we passed through Dongwu City, we were captured by the bald monks of the West Garden Temple, who insisted we were malevolent monsters causing harm and tried to forcefully 'transcend' us. Heavens above, my husband and I cultivated diligently for a hundred years in the deep mountains and never harmed a single soul, yet we were about to suffer such a calamity. Fortunately, True Person Li intervened and saved us, allowing us to escape the great danger."

At this, the yellow-clad woman bowed gracefully.

Li Yundong raised his hand slightly. "Since you have escaped the tiger's mouth, why have you come looking for me now? That day was a coincidence; I didn't intend to save you. You don't need to thank me."

The yellow-clad woman choked back a sob. "Although we escaped the tiger, we couldn't escape the wolf's claws. These past few days, we have been completely surrounded and besieged by cultivators from several sects in Xinbin, who intended to rob and kill us for our internal elixirs. With nowhere left to turn, I remembered that in the mortal realm, only True Person Li once offered aid. I also heard that True Person Li magnanimously intervened to save the Fox Zen Gate from imminent destruction. More commendably, True Person Li does not discriminate against spirits like us who cultivate in demonic bodies. That is why I dared to venture out as a Yin Spirit to seek help."

Li Yundong asked gravely, "How did you find me?"

The yellow-clad woman replied, "I was lingering near the Fox Zen Gate until I sensed True Person Li's aura nearby, and then I followed."

Li Yundong offered no comment and asked again, "You want me to save you? But how can I know you haven't committed any heinous acts?"

The yellow-clad woman cried out, "As Heaven values the preservation of life, my husband and I have never done anything to harm others. If we have, may we be struck by lightning!"

Whether Buddhist or Daoist, both schools strongly believed in the law of cause and effect. Thus, Li Yundong found himself believing her oath to some extent.

But Ziyuan whispered from the side, "Li Yundong, it's not that I'm being tedious or pedantic, but humans and demons are different after all. As the saying goes, 'those not of our kind must have different intentions.' Not all demons are pure and harmless like Su Chan. You must be cautious before making a decision."

Ziyuan's words caused Li Yundong to hesitate once more, leaving him momentarily torn.

To save them or not to save them? That was a question worth considering.