When a medicinal pill surpassed the mid-stage of the eighth rank, it was no longer something Li Yan could control at his current level. At that point, the pill's intelligence would be equivalent to a human in their teens, and its combat strength would be comparable to the Foundation Establishment Realm. This was also why Li Yan suspected the meaning behind that hint of hesitation in Pingtu's expression; Pingtu probably had even better pills, but their rank was certainly above the mid-stage of the eighth rank. If he gave them to Li Yan, Li Yan wouldn't be able to use them, and if the pill escaped, it would only bring a fatal disaster upon Li Yan.
After forcefully containing the medicinal pill with his spiritual power, Li Yan extended a finger from his other hand and quickly swiped at the center of the pill. As his finger moved toward the pill, Li Yan didn't know if it was an illusion, but he could actually feel the pill in his palm trembling. But Li Yan still swiped down with his spiritual-power-infused finger. The next moment, he seemed to hear a whimper that was cut short, and then the pill in his hand had become two halves.
Li Yan moved very quickly. One half of the pill flashed and was swiftly sent toward the wound of the prone Gong Chenying. Under the effect of Li Yan's spiritual power, the half-pill vanished in a flash, having been driven deep into Gong Chenying's wound. At the same time, the other half of the pill also transformed into a streak of purple light and shot toward Gong Chenying's mouth. Likewise, under the effect of Li Yan's spiritual power, Gong Chenying's sandalwood-like mouth opened slightly, and the pill disappeared inside.
After doing this, Li Yan stared fixedly at the jade-like person before him. He did not immediately close Gong Chenying's upper inner clothes. He wanted to see the extent of the wound's healing; he was very curious about this mid-stage, eighth-rank pill.
Gong Chenying was having a dream. The little girl with bare feet stood on tiptoe before the large urn. Then, with her eyes tightly shut, her hands, somewhat stiff, slowly plunged into the large urn. The dozen or so extremely colorful and vibrant poisonous insects in the urn, seeing a pair of tender white arms extend in, immediately began to move faster, either waving their giant front limbs or opening their sinister white fangs to pounce on the pair of tender, small arms.
As the little girl's hands extended from the large urn, she viciously turned her head to one side, as if by doing so she could forget everything. But in the next moment, her small body began to tremble violently. An expression of extreme pain appeared on her originally delicate face, and the tiptoes she was standing on trembled even more intensely. But with her small face turned to the side, she only kept her eyes tightly shut, biting her lip so hard that she didn't make a single sound.
Outside the bamboo house door, a torrential rain poured down endlessly from the gloomy sky, hitting the dense plantain leaves in the continuous stretch of bamboo houses, making a dense 'pitter-patter' sound. Beyond the rain curtain, the mountains were dark and heavy. The gloomy and cold air in the mountains became even colder as it drifted with the rain, continuously pouring in through the doors, windows, and cracks of the stilted bamboo house, making the little girl's body even colder.
At the top of the bamboo house stairs, a middle-aged man stared at the little girl, his face extremely grim, but his gaze occasionally revealed a hint of intolerance. Behind him were several old men dressed in black. Their hair was disheveled, and some even had withered leaves and wild grass from the mountains stuck in it. Each of them was hunched over, their faces covered in wrinkles, but painted with colorful, ancient runes. Each held a dark-colored staff, on which hung skulls of beasts of various sizes. These white, sinister skull-beast heads formed a sharp contrast with the black staff handles, which had been polished to a glossy shine. These people just stared at the little girl in the bamboo house, their eyes cold and emotionless.
In her dream, Gong Chenying only felt the raindrops, wrapped in wind, continuously blowing on her body through the cracks in the bamboo house. She only felt herself getting colder and colder, her arms growing weaker and weaker. Even her tightly shut eyes were drooping lower and lower. She felt her body getting lighter and lighter, as if her whole being were about to be blown away with the invading rain and wind.
"So cold, Father! A-mei is so cold."
She opened her eyes, her head still turned away, as if she saw the man at the door. But the man's face was getting blurrier and blurrier. She tried desperately to open her eyes wide, but she couldn't see clearly at all. The coldness in her body was also making her thoughts begin to blur.
A gruff voice came to her from far and near in her mind, somewhat ethereal. "A-mei, Father~ misses you!"
"Father, Father..." Gong Chenying tried desperately to lift her head, but she only felt it getting heavier and heavier. She could only murmur.
But just at this moment, a sudden scorching heat came from within her body, as if all the poisonous insects in the large urn had burrowed into her, making her body unbearably hot. At the same time, waves of heart-piercing pain came. This pain did not penetrate the marrow, but the soul, making her let out a soft groan. She became a little more conscious. But she seemed to have sensed something, and she immediately shut her lips tightly again. A look of sorrow appeared on the little girl's tender, pale face.
'Father, A-mei did not make it through this trial after all, and even let out a cry of pain. A-mei is about to fail!'
'Father, A-mei said she would be your brave A-mei, but it really hurts.'
Li Yan had been watching the prone Gong Chenying. He saw her frown from time to time, and at other times, a rare smile would appear on her face. It was a smile of release. This smile was somewhat poignant, yet her face was filled with a deep stubbornness. For some reason, this smile made Li Yan feel a sense of sorrow, a thick, irresolvable, and inescapable sorrow.
Gong Chenying was just feeling that her internal organs were about to be roasted to a crisp by the scorching heat, and those poisonous insects were rampaging inside her body. Just as the pain reached its extreme, a coolness, like the clear spring water from the mountain streams of her hometown, flowed directly from her throat into her body. The scorching heat immediately disappeared, leaving only a cool sensation.
This coolness was like when she was a child, tired from running in the mountains, scooping up a handful of stream water and drinking it down, then scooping up another handful and splashing it on her small face. At that time, the sky was very blue, the mountains were very quiet, and the world was very vast. But all of this slowly, slowly became ethereal and blurry. The stilted bamboo house disappeared, the mountain forest disappeared, the little girl also disappeared, and Father... also disappeared.
Then she suddenly opened her eyes. Everything had vanished. What met her eyes was a blurry cave ceiling. Then the scene before her slowly came into focus. In the corner of her eye, there was also an ordinary-looking face, and a pair of eyes filled with a hint of awkwardness and pity.
Gong Chenying was startled. She sat up straight and swung her hand, but she hit only empty air. The familiar long halberd was gone. And she also felt a sharp pain from within her body. What astonished her most was that she also felt a wave of coolness on her chest. But she was still acting on instinct from waking up and didn't react for a moment.
That ordinary face took two steps back, and then a familiar voice came. "Sixth Senior Sister, it's me. Don't move for now. Although you look much better, you still need to rest for a bit."
When Li Yan saw Gong Chenying's long eyelashes tremble, he had already prepared to retreat. But he was also marveling at the efficacy of the eighth-rank pill and feeling a hint of pity.
'It really is an eighth-rank pill, a legendary existence indeed. In just a moment, the wound on her abdomen has already healed so much. At this rate, it will be as good as new in another dozen breaths or so. I imagine that after the other half of the pill entered her mouth, Sixth Senior Sister's shattered organs must also have been repaired. Alas, an eighth-rank pill.' Thinking of it still pained Li Yan.
Hearing this voice, Gong Chenying was stunned. Then, the next moment, her mind cleared a little. Her sandalwood-like mouth opened slightly. "It's you, Li Yan?" In her memory, after she had taken that blow from Wang Lang, she had only felt herself being thrown high into the air, and then she had lost consciousness.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem, Sixth Senior Sister, I happened to run into you and Wang Lang fighting when I passed by... But, Sixth Senior Sister, now... Oh, this junior was impolite just now." When Gong Chenying woke up, it wasn't just her waving arm that made him take a step back. It was more like a subconscious retreat out of a guilty conscience, as if he had been caught in the act. Redness flooded his face, and he had already turned his head away.
Gong Chenying's mind was still in a semi-conscious state. Seeing Li Yan's hesitant appearance, a girl's natural sense of self-protection made her look down at herself. With just one glance, her pretty face instantly turned as red as a vibrant cloth. Both shy and angry, she waved her hand, and a piercing spiritual light enveloped her. In a flurry of movements, she took out a complete set of dark green robes from her storage bag.
A moment later, the piercing spiritual light around Gong Chenying disappeared. She was once again draped in a new dark green robe, but it still couldn't hide her stunning figure. Her pretty face was still blushing, and her beauty was unparalleled in her anger and pique. Li Yan still hadn't turned his head back. Although he had been staring before, everything was different after Gong Chenying woke up.
Gong Chenying bit her lower lip, her jade-like face flushed as she looked at Li Yan, who was still turned away. Although she had been in a flurry just now, she had now calmed down a little. She had only glanced down, but she roughly knew what parts Li Yan had seen. Her chest wrap showed no signs of being moved, and she felt nothing unusual below. But even so, she still sent her Divine Sense to probe her own body. Even when probing her own privacy, Gong Chenying's heart raced, and her face flushed hot. A moment later, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Her virginity was intact.
But she was immediately stunned. Only then did she remember that when she had just woken up and sat up, her wound had still been aching. Now, not only was there no discomfort, but her spiritual power had also recovered by at least thirty percent. She couldn't help but scan her body again with her Divine Sense. There was not a single injury in her body at this moment. After confirming that her body was fine, she scanned her abdomen with her Divine Sense. The blush that had just faded from her face immediately rose again.
Gong Chenying's eyes shimmered like water. She calmed herself down a little, but the next moment, her Divine Sense froze there. She was completely stunned. The wound on her lower abdomen had basically healed, and new flesh was growing at a visible rate. At this speed, in a few breaths, there would not be a single scar on her abdomen.
'What in the world is this pill? To be so fast? Even the top-grade pills in the sect wouldn't have this kind of effect.' Gong Chenying was shocked inside, but at this moment, her mind couldn't focus on this. She had just scanned her entire body with her Divine Sense. She knew that Li Yan had taken off her inner clothes only to treat her, but she secretly blamed him for not dressing her again after treating her, instead leaving her exposed. If he had just put her clothes back on, even if she had found out later, it would have avoided the embarrassment.
But how could she have known that Li Yan was also naive about matters between men and women? Not to mention that Li Yan had had other thoughts just now. He had wanted to see the effect of the eighth-rank pill. Otherwise, if even he didn't know the result of the treatment, it would only pain him more. Even so, he felt that Gong Chenying had woken up too early. Otherwise, he could have seen the final treatment effect completely. This would have cost him a lot of knowledge about the pill, and he would have lost the direct experience for how to use the other pill in the future. So, when he saw Gong Chenying wake up just now, there was a hint of regret in his eyes. But this look had a different meaning in Gong Chenying's eyes. So, although she was grateful that Li Yan had saved her, she was also angry at the same time.
If Gong Chenying knew what he was thinking, who knows if she would have killed him on the spot with a palm strike.
But as an unmarried young woman, to have her virgin body seen by a man like this was truly a difficult matter to speak of. However, according to Gong Chenying's character, as long as Li Yan hadn't done anything out of line, she would be able to distinguish between what was important and what was not. But there was one thing that was currently troubling her, making her both shy and angry.
"Little Junior Brother, you saw." A voice entered Li Yan's ear.