The woman looked so gentle and refined, yet her words were as cold as a blade, sending a chill through Han Li's heart.
"Has Senior changed her mind?" Han Li exhaled slowly, saying something that caught the woman slightly off guard.
"Well, it seems you're not entirely useless! At least you have some sense," the woman said, her expression unchanged.
"If Senior truly intended to kill me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the chance to open my eyes!" Han Li replied with a faint smile, his demeanor calm.
"My name is Nangong Ping. Drop the 'Senior' nonsense — it makes me sound ancient!" The woman turned her head away again, her tone flat and noncommittal.
Hearing this, Han Li paused for a moment, then inwardly grumbled:
"She's already formed her Golden Core. By mortal standards, if she's not an old hag, what is she?"
Han Li's entire reserve of true essence had been drained by her, so he naturally harbored a simmering resentment toward this woman. But with his life hanging in her hands, all he could do was silently curse her a few times.
"Yesterday you mistook me for my cousin and saved me, so that makes you my, Nangong Ping's, benefactor. Besides, I unintentionally absorbed your true essence to stabilize my injuries and prevent them from worsening. I won't let this debt go unpaid," the woman said leisurely, her back still turned to Han Li.
"Forget it. Since you're Nangong Wan's cousin, I'll chalk it up to bad luck!" Han Li frowned and said helplessly.
Then he stretched his limbs and got to his feet.
Two sharp slaps rang out. A white blur flashed before Han Li's eyes, and after a gust of fragrant wind, he received two solid backhands across his face, spinning him around in place so that he nearly collapsed again.
"You—" Han Li clapped a hand over his burning cheek, staring at Nangong Ping in stunned outrage.
"Yesterday, without my permission, you dared to touch my body with your filthy hands! And all through the night you even dared to lie on top of me until I passed out! Those two slaps were merely a light punishment!" Nangong Ping said, her voice turning icy. When she mentioned being pinned down by Han Li, a faint blush crept across her face, but it was quickly replaced by a frosty expression.
Han Li was rendered speechless.
Trying to reason with a female cultivator who had reached the Golden Core stage about propriety between men and women was simply asking for trouble. One wrong word and she might slap him again! Right now he was meat on the chopping board — she could slice him up however she pleased.
Moreover, he had a nagging feeling that the real reason she was treating him this way had nothing to do with what happened yesterday. She simply wanted to vent her anger on his behalf, likely to settle a score for that Nangong Wan.
After this realization, Han Li forcibly suppressed his rage, gently touched his slightly swollen cheek, and said nothing more.
Seeing Han Li behave so obediently without a single word of protest actually drew a flicker of surprise from Nangong Ping.
Just as Han Li had guessed, she had been ready to teach him a further lesson if he so much as argued about yesterday's events. But now that he was being so tactful and keeping his mouth shut, she had no excuse to strike again.
So she could only snort coldly and say without ceremony:
"Now that the slaps are out of the way, let me explain how I plan to repay your great kindness. I'm giving you two options. First, I can give you a sum of spirit stones right here and now — more than enough to leave your jaw on the floor — to compensate you for your loss of cultivation and for saving my life."
"Second, you come with me to rejoin our sect's retreating party. Once our six sects have resettled, I'll personally refine some spiritual pills and arrange for a young female disciple of our sect to serve as your dual-cultivation partner, helping you recover your former cultivation as quickly as possible. You've only suffered a severe loss of true essence — re-cultivating won't run into any of those so-called bottlenecks. In my estimation, give it ten or twenty years and you should be able to return to your previous level. Of course, if I'm in a good mood during that time, I might even teach you a few of our sect's secret techniques! Our Yanyue Sect is nothing like that mishmash of a sect you called home — the Yellow Maple Valley. We have numerous techniques that have never been shared with outsiders, and their wonders are beyond anything an outsider could possibly imagine. The technique that automatically absorbed your cultivation yesterday is just one of them."
After delivering this proud speech, Nangong Ping stared at Han Li with an unwavering expression, awaiting his choice.
But Han Li was somewhat stunned!
The disparity between these two options was absurd!
One was a mere handout of spirit stones to send him on his way, while the other not only helped him recover his cultivation but also provided a dual-cultivation partner and offered to teach him secret techniques. The more he listened, the more it felt like this woman was deliberately steering him toward the second option!
This was more than a little suspicious. Had she set some kind of trap for him?
Han Li weighed his thoughts and hesitated, glancing at Nangong Ping.
But from her eyes, he caught a faint, complicated emotion — something between expectation and anxiety.
Han Li's heart skipped a beat, and he grew even more confused.
He rubbed his nose hard, folded his arms, propped his chin in his right hand, and sank into deep thought.
A full incense stick's worth of time passed, and Han Li still hadn't spoken. Nangong Ping couldn't help but arch a delicate brow and urge him with parted lips:
"Well? Have you made up your mind?"
At this moment, impatience was written all over her face.