A Stinging Reward

The woman had a gentle, warm appearance, but the words that left her mouth were as cold as knives, sending a chill through Han Li.

“Has Senior changed her mind?” Han Li let out a long breath and said something that caught the woman slightly off guard.

“So you’re not completely useless. You at least have some brains,” the woman said impassively.

“If Senior truly wanted to kill me, I doubt I would ever have opened my eyes,” Han Li replied with a faint smile, his expression composed.

“My name is Nan Gong Ping. Stop calling me ‘Senior’—it makes me sound old,” she said, turning her head back without any expression, her tone noncommittal.

Han Li was taken aback for a moment, then grumbled inwardly:

She’s already at Core Formation; by mortal reckoning, isn’t she an old woman?

All his true essence had been drained by her, so naturally he was simmering with resentment, but with his life in her hands, he could only curse her a few times in his heart.

“Even though you only rescued me yesterday because you mistook me for my cousin, you still count as my benefactor, Nan Gong Ping. And since I unintentionally absorbed your true essence to stabilize my injuries without them worsening, I won’t fail to repay this debt,” the woman said leisurely, her back to Han Li.

“Forget it. Since you’re Nan Gong Wan’s cousin, I’ll consider myself unlucky,” Han Li said with a frown, resigned.

Then he moved his arms and legs and stood up.

Two sharp cracks rang out. A white blur flashed before Han Li’s eyes, accompanied by a fragrant gust of wind. Two solid slaps landed across his face, spinning him around in place until he nearly collapsed to the ground.

“You…” Han Li covered his stinging cheeks in shock, looking at Nan Gong Ping with a mixture of surprise and anger.

“Yesterday, you dared to touch my body with your dirty hands without my permission! And you even had the nerve to lie… lie on top of me and pass out the entire night! Those two slaps are just a small lesson,” Nan Gong Ping said coldly, a faint blush rising on her cheeks before her face turned icy once more.

Han Li was speechless.

Trying to reason with a female Core Formation cultivator about boundaries between men and women was asking for trouble. One argument and she might give him two more slaps. Right now, he was the meat on her chopping block—she could cut him however she pleased.

Besides, he vaguely suspected that her treatment of him had nothing to do with yesterday’s accidental contact. She was simply taking the chance to teach him a lesson and vent some spite on behalf of Nan Gong Wan.

With that guess, Han Li forcefully swallowed his anger, gently touched his slightly swollen cheeks, and remained silent.

Seeing Han Li so tactfully refrain from arguing, Nan Gong Ping showed a flicker of surprise.

Just as Han Li had suspected, she had already decided that if he argued about yesterday’s events, she would give him another dose without explanation. But his silent compliance left her without an excuse to strike again.

So she only snorted and said bluntly:

“Now that the slaps are done, I’ll talk about how to repay your great kindness. I’ll give you two paths to choose from. First, I can give you a certain amount of spirit stones here and now—enough to make your jaw drop—to compensate for your loss of cultivation and the debt of rescue.”

“Second, you come with me to catch up with our sect’s retreating forces. Once the six sects settle down, I’ll refine some spiritual pills and find a young female disciple of my sect to dual cultivate with you, so you can recover your original cultivation as quickly as possible. You’ve only lost a large amount of true essence; restarting your cultivation path won’t have bottlenecks worth mentioning. I estimate that within ten or twenty years, you’ll be back to your previous level. And during that time, if I’m in a good mood, I might even pass on a few secret techniques of our sect. You should know, our Moon-Masking Sect is different from your Yellow Maple Valley—that mongrel sect. We have many secret techniques that are never passed outside, and their wonders are beyond the imagination of outsiders. The technique I used yesterday to automatically absorb your cultivation is one of them.”

Nan Gong Ping delivered these words with a proud air, staring at Han Li without changing expression, waiting for his choice.

Han Li was stunned.

These two conditions were so vastly different they almost seemed absurd.

One gave him a handful of spirit stones and sent him on his way. The other not only helped him recover his cultivation but also offered a dual cultivation partner and a few secret arts. The more Han Li thought about it, the more it seemed like she was deliberately steering him toward the second option.

That was suspicious. Was she setting a trap?

He hesitated, glancing at Nan Gong Ping.

But he caught a faint, complicated look in her eyes—something that seemed like expectation, mixed with anxiety.

Han Li was puzzled.

He rubbed his nose vigorously, crossed his arms, propped his chin on his hand, and sank into thought.

A full incense stick’s worth of time passed, and Han Li still hadn’t spoken. Unable to bear it any longer, Nan Gong Ping raised an eyebrow slightly, parted her lips, and urged:

“Well? Have you decided?”

Her expression now showed clear impatience.

At the prompting, Han Li lifted his head and looked at her thoughtfully. “I’ve made my choice. I’ll take the first condition. Just give me some spirit stones, Senior. I’ll find my own way to restore my cultivation—there’s no need for you to worry,” he said calmly, his tone flat.

Nan Gong Ping was taken aback, a strange expression flickering across her face.

She stared at Han Li for a long moment, then suddenly raised her hand and tossed a red storage pouch over.

“The spirit stones are inside. There are also some common materials; you can have them,” she said, her voice somewhat cold.

Han Li paid no attention to her tone. He caught the pouch without ceremony and sank his spiritual sense into it for a quick scan.

Even though he had been prepared, the dozens of mid-grade spirit stones and the miscellaneous materials inside still gave him a start.

Suddenly, a hint of joy appeared on his face. He looked up and asked eagerly:

“Senior, do you happen to have any Harmony Prime Jade? Could you spare a few more pieces?”

The woman’s eyes flickered with surprise at the request.

Without a word, she felt around on her person for a moment, then tossed out a few pieces of white jade. Han Li caught them with great delight.

Now, the materials needed to repair the teleportation array were all gathered without any further searching.

“Is there anything else? If not, I’ll be on my way,” Nan Gong Ping said coldly, watching him with an expressionless face.

“Ah… no, there’s nothing more to trouble you with,” Han Li replied seriously, shaking his head.

Hearing this, Nan Gong Ping gave a light snort, turned, and walked out of the hollow tree.

But when she reached the entrance, she turned back and said flatly, “Han Li, I don’t know if you’re really foolish with this choice, or if you think you’re clever.”

After speaking, a flying sword flew out from her sleeve. With a flash of white, she stepped onto it.

Right then, Han Li’s lazy voice came from behind her:

“Senior, don’t forget to pass on my regards to Nan Gong Wan.”

At those words, Nan Gong Ping’s figure stiffened for a moment. Then, without a word, she transformed into a streak of white light and flew out of the cave entrance. Whether she had agreed or simply ignored him, there was no way to tell.

Seeing this, Han Li gave a wry smile and rubbed his nose again. He plopped back down on the ground, staring blankly at the entrance, lost in thought.

Even now, he still couldn’t understand how his entire cultivation could have been drained by this woman.

Was the Moon-Masking Sect’s technique really that domineering? Was it even more sinister than the Black Fiend Sect’s blood sacrifice?

But Han Li figured that such a cultivation-draining technique must have many restrictions and flaws. Otherwise, Moon-Masking Sect cultivators would have been hunted down and wiped out long ago in this cultivation world.

His guess hit close to the truth.

The reason Nan Gong Ping had been able to absorb his true essence was largely due to a coincidence.

After performing the secret technique, her own true essence had been severely depleted. Without an unexpected breakthrough, she would have suffered a significant drop in cultivation. Although she might still maintain a Core Formation level, she would certainly lose decades of bitter cultivation.

Moreover, when the secret technique’s effect wore off, she had expected to fall into the hands of those two demonic-path cultivators. Thus, she gritted her teeth and activated her cultivation technique’s ultimate ability—the “True Samsara Art.”

Once this technique was invoked, if anyone probed her body with spiritual power, they would be forcibly locked onto by the spiral true essence formed inside her and have their true essence drained clean. If this woman hadn’t awakened early and stopped the art in time, Han Li would have been completely drained of even the last shred of cultivation he had.

Of course, such a bizarre technique came with extremely harsh conditions.

First, the caster had to be in a state of severely depleted true essence to activate it.

Second, if no one’s true essence replenished her loss within a certain period after activation, the caster’s true essence would contract inward and she would explode to death—a semi-suicidal technique.

The most frustrating part, however, was that while this ability could absorb another’s true essence, it was strictly limited to replenishing the caster’s own original deficiency. It could not raise the caster’s magic power by even a sliver.