The woman looked so gentle, but her words were as cold as a blade, striking Han Li's heart.
"Has the senior changed his mind?" Han Li let out a long breath and said something that surprised the woman a little.
"It seems you're not entirely useless after all! At least you have some sense." The woman said calmly without any change in expression.
"If the senior truly intended to kill me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the chance to open my eyes!" Han Li smiled faintly and said with his usual composure.
"My name is Nangong Ping. Stop calling me 'senior' - it makes me sound so old!" The woman said flatly, turning her head back with no particular reaction.
Hearing this, Han Li was stunned for a moment, then secretly thought to himself:
"Since she's already reached Core Formation, according to mortal standards, isn't she just an old woman?"
Han Li's true essence had been completely absorbed by her, so naturally he was frustrated with this woman, but his life was in her hands, so he could only curse her silently.
"Even though you only saved me yesterday because you mistook me for my cousin, you're still my, Nangong Ping's, benefactor. And yesterday I unintentionally absorbed your true essence to stabilize my injuries from worsening. I, Nangong Ping, won't forget this debt." The woman said leisurely with her back to Han Li.
"Forget it. Since you're Nangong Wan's cousin, I'll just consider myself unlucky!" Han Li frowned and said helplessly.
Then he moved his hands and feet and stood up.
"Pa pa" - two crisp sounds rang out. A white figure flashed before Han Li's eyes, and after a gust of fragrant wind, he received two solid slaps on the face, spinning involuntarily in place. He nearly fell to the ground again.
"You..." Han Li held his burning cheeks in shock and glared at Nangong Ping in anger.
"Yesterday, without my permission, you dare to touch my body with your dirty hands! And last night you even dared to... to press down on me until I fainted! These two slaps are just a small punishment!" Nangong Ping's voice turned cold, but when she mentioned being pressed down by Han Li, a faint blush rose on her face. However, it quickly turned back to frost.
Hearing this, Han Li was speechless.
Arguing about propriety between men and women with a Core Formation female cultivator was simply asking for trouble. If he argued even a little, she might give him another couple of slaps! He was completely at her mercy right now!
Moreover, he vaguely sensed that this woman's treatment of him might not actually be because he touched her yesterday, but simply to teach him a lesson to vent her anger for Nangong Wan.
After this speculation, Han Li forcibly suppressed his anger, gently touched his slightly swollen cheeks, and remained silent.
Seeing Han Li so sensible as not to argue a single word, Nangong Ping showed a hint of surprise!
Actually, just as Han Li had guessed, this woman had already planned that if Han Li argued about yesterday's events, she would give him a taste of her power without further explanation. But now, Han Li was so tactful as to remain silent, leaving her with no excuse to strike again.
So she could only snort coldly and say unceremoniously:
"Now that the slaps have been given, let me talk about how to repay your great kindness. I have two options for you. First, I can give you a certain number of spirit stones on the spot, enough to make your eyes pop out, to compensate for the loss of your cultivation level and your kindness in saving me."
"Second, you can follow me to catch up with our sect's retreating forces. After our six sects settle down again, I'll refine some spirit pills and find a young female disciple from our sect for dual cultivation with you, allowing you to recover your original cultivation level as quickly as possible. You've only lost a lot of true essence; re-cultivating won't have any so-called bottlenecks. As I estimate, with ten to twenty years of effort, you should be able to return to your previous level. Of course, during this period, if I'm pleased, I might even teach you a few of our sect's secret arts! You should know that our Hidden Moon Sect is different from your Yellow Maple Valley, which is a hodgepodge of a sect. We have many secret arts that are never passed to outsiders, and their mystical effects are beyond the imagination of outsiders. And the cultivation method that automatically absorbed your cultivation level yesterday is one of them."
After Nangong Ping finished speaking these words with pride, she stared at Han Li without changing her expression, waiting for his choice.
But Han Li was somewhat dazed!
These two conditions sounded vastly disproportionate!
One just gives some spirit stones to send someone away, while the other not only helps recover cultivation level but also provides a dual cultivation partner and is willing to teach some secret arts. The more Han Li heard, the more he felt this woman was deliberately trying to make him choose the second option!
This was really strange - could the other party have set some kind of trap for him?
Han Li thought this, and looked at Nangong Ping hesitantly.
But from the other party's eyes, he saw a trace of complicated emotion, faintly visible, seemingly with some anticipation and some anxiety.
Han Li was stunned, even more confused!
He rubbed his nose vigorously, crossed his arms, propped his chin with his right hand, and fell into deep thought.
A full stick of incense time passed, and Han Li still hadn't spoken. But Nangong Ping couldn't help but raise her delicate eyebrows slightly and open her rosy lips to urge him:
"Well, have you made your decision?"
At this moment, her face was full of impatience!
Hearing this urging voice, Han Li looked up, gazed thoughtfully at the other party for a moment, then slowly said:
"I've decided. I'll choose the first condition. Senior just needs to give me some spirit stones. I'll find a way to recover my cultivation level myself - there's no need for the senior to worry!"
Han Li's expression was calm.
Hearing Han Li's decision, Nangong Ping's face froze, showing a somewhat strange expression.
She stared at Han Li's face for a while, then suddenly raised her hand and threw over a red storage bag.
"The spirit stones are inside, along with some commonly used materials, which I'll give to you as well." Nangong Ping's voice was somewhat cold.
Han Li didn't care about her tone and unceremoniously grabbed the storage bag, then sent his spiritual sense inside to scan it.
Even though he had prepared himself mentally, the dozens of mid-grade spirit stones and numerous miscellaneous materials inside still greatly surprised him.
Suddenly, Han Li showed a hint of joy and urgently asked Nangong Ping:
"Does the senior have any Harmony Jade? Could you give me a few more pieces?"
This question from Han Li made a flash of surprise appear in the woman's eyes.
But without a word, she groped around her body for a while, then threw over several pieces of white jade. Han Li accepted them with great joy.
In this way, the materials for repairing the transmission formation were gathered without needing to search.
"Is there anything else? If not, I'll be going first." Nangong Ping watched Han Li's actions coldly and said suddenly without expression.
"Oh... there's nothing else that requires the senior's trouble!" Han Li said seriously, shaking his head.
Hearing this, Nangong Ping gave a delicate snort and immediately turned to walk out of the tree hollow.
But when she reached the entrance of the tree hollow, she turned her head back and said calmly:
"Han Li, whether you're truly foolish or just being clever with your choice, I don't know!"
After saying this, a sword flew out from her sleeve, then the white figure swayed and she was standing on it.
But just then, from behind her came Han Li's languid voice.
"Don't forget to send my regards to Nangong Wan for me, senior!"
Hearing this, Nangong Ping's figure stiffened for a moment, but then without a word she transformed into a beam of white light and flew out from the cave entrance. It was impossible to tell whether she had agreed or simply ignored him.
Seeing this scene, Han Li smiled bitterly a few times, touched his nose, simply sat down on the ground again, and then stared blankly at the cave entrance, lost in thought.
To this day, he still couldn't understand how his cultivation level could have been absorbed by this woman.
Was the cultivation method of the Hidden Moon Sect really that domineering? Was it even more bizarre than the Black Fiend Religion's blood sacrifice?
However, Han Li believed that this kind of cultivation method that absorbed others' cultivation level must have many restrictions and flaws. Otherwise, cultivators of the Hidden Moon Sect would have been eliminated by everyone in the cultivation world long ago.
Han Li's speculation actually touched on some truth.
The reason Nangong Ping was able to absorb his true essence was entirely a coincidence.
After this woman used the secret arts, her true essence was already greatly depleted. Without any accidents, her cultivation level would definitely drop significantly. Although she could still maintain the Core Formation level, decades of hard cultivation would certainly be lost.
And after the secret arts' effects disappeared, she thought she would fall into the hands of those two demonic path cultivators, so she gritted her teeth and activated the cultivation method's supernatural power - the "Cycle of Reincarnation."
Once this supernatural power was activated, as long as someone probed this woman's body with spiritual power, they would naturally be forcibly attracted by the spiral true essence formed inside her body, and then their true essence and cultivation level would be completely absorbed. If this woman hadn't woken up early and stopped the cultivation method in time, Han Li might have even had his last bit of cultivation completely drained.
Of course, this bizarre supernatural power had extremely harsh conditions for use.
First, it required the caster to be in a state of greatly depleted true essence to activate this technique.
Second, if after this technique was activated for a period of time and no one else's true essence was provided to supplement the internal loss, the caster's true essence would shrink inward and they would self-detonate, which could be considered a semi-suicidal cultivation method.
But what made it most like a chicken rib was that although this supernatural power could absorb others' true essence, it was limited only to the caster's original depleted portion. It could not be used to increase the caster's cultivation level in the slightest.