"Oh, I saw."
Li Yan turned his head, his mind still thinking about the healing process of Gong Chenying's abdominal wound, still complaining in his heart that this Sixth Senior Sister had woken up a little early. Suddenly hearing a crisp voice in his ear, he subconsciously opened his mouth and replied. But as soon as the words were out, he shouted in his heart, "This is bad!"
"Oh, what did you see?" Gong Chenying stood there, her expression very calm, as if she were just asking casually.
Li Yan slowly turned his head back, his face twitching slightly. What he saw was a pretty, flushed face, her almond-shaped eyes staring at him, a sharp light flashing in them from time to time. She looked calm, but her full, firm chest was heaving violently, and an aura that made Li Yan tremble was slowly emanating from her body. This made Li Yan take a few steps back.
"Sixth... Sixth... Senior Sister, you... you can't be like this. This junior did it all to save you. Apart from the wound, I didn't touch any other part of you. You... you... you can't be like this," Li Yan hurriedly explained.
"Is that so? You just kept staring after saving me?" Gong Chenying grit her silver teeth, enunciating each word. She couldn't believe Li Yan looked as if he had done nothing wrong.
Li Yan felt as if he could hear a she-wolf grinding her teeth in the cave. His heart immediately tensed up even more. "I was just thinking about seeing how the pill worked. I can't just have you use the pill without me knowing what effect it had, right?"
"Oh? What pill was that?" Hearing Li Yan's words, Gong Chenying was stunned. She saw that this Senior Sister, who had seemed like an erupting volcano just now, was now slowly retracting her aura. In the end, she had surprisingly calmed down.
Seeing Gong Chenying slowly calm down, Li Yan's heart relaxed a little. If Gong Chenying had really insisted on pursuing the matter, he really wouldn't have known how to end it. Now, Li Yan was also regretting his own reckless actions. Even if he didn't understand matters between men and women, this was a matter of morality, something the old scholar in the village had taught him. It was just that just now, he had been so pained by the eighth-rank pill that his mind had been completely focused on it. Apart from a brief impulse at the beginning, he hadn't thought about matters between men and women at all. But for this to happen to a girl, it was too late for him to regret it afterward.
"I don't know what pill that was either. I found it by chance in a storage bag in the space outside the passage. There was only this one jade bottle in that storage bag, and only this one pill in the bottle," Li Yan had already thought of an excuse. He could never tell anyone about Pingtu and the eighth-rank pill. He pushed everything onto the multicolored space. Anyway, only Gan Shi had been there, and Gan Shi didn't know what was in the multicolored space either.
"You gave it to me without knowing what it was?" Gong Chenying was still stunned. She had never expected to get such an unexpected answer.
"I didn't know, but the pill smelled fragrant, so it didn't seem like a poison. Besides, with your condition at the time, Senior Sister, I had no other choice, so I could only..." Li Yan scratched his head, looking somewhat troubled.
"It was truly a waste to use this pill on me. If it were taken back to the sect for research, it would be priceless, and you would also receive an unimaginable reward. If the results of the research on this pill were to come out, it could raise the sect's alchemy level by one or two grades. A waste, truly a waste." After hearing Li Yan's words, Gong Chenying did not continue to ask if Li Yan had found anything else in the multicolored space. She just fell silent for a moment after hearing him, muttering to herself.
Li Yan, of course, heard Gong Chenying's words and couldn't help but roll his eyes in his heart. 'Is this Sixth Senior Sister naive, or stupid? To contribute this pill to the sect? If you could still be standing here, you would have gone to the underworld long ago. Besides, once news of this eighth-rank pill leaked, the Malevolent Spirit Sect would probably face pressure from the other three sects. It would be impossible not to hand it over for joint research. It might even attract unknown powerful experts.'
But his expression showed no change. He just spread his hands, indicating that what was used was used, and there was no point in talking about it.
"Sixth Senior Sister, we have to go. Wang Lang might come looking for us at any time," Li Yan had been calculating the time in his heart. About half a cup of tea's time had passed. They had to leave.
After saying this, he turned and walked toward the cave entrance. But after taking two steps, he heard no movement behind him. He couldn't help but stop and turn to look. He saw Gong Chenying still standing there, biting her lower lip, her face alternating between red and white, her eyes fixed on him. When she saw him turn to look, her gaze immediately darted away, not daring to meet his. Her long, slender fingers were twisting together, as if she were hesitant.
"Sixth Senior Sister, what's wrong with you? Is your injury not healed? Or is there a problem with the pill?" Li Yan couldn't help but wonder. He thought to himself, 'This is a mid-stage, eighth-rank pill. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it an immortal medicine. How come her face is still not right?'
"Li... Li Yan, what did you see just now?" Gong Chenying, in a departure from her usual direct and straightforward style, asked again with some hesitation.
In Li Yan's eyes, her expression was like that of a completely different person. When had Gong Chenying ever had such a shy and coy demeanor of a young girl? At this moment, standing before Li Yan was clearly a youthful and pretty girl of eighteen from next door. There was a strange charm in her every move. For a moment, Li Yan couldn't help but be stunned.
Seeing the somewhat dazed look in Li Yan's eyes, Gong Chenying immediately knew her expression was unusual. She straightened herself, reached up, and tucked a strand of short hair that had fallen beside her face behind her ear.
"What? I'm asking you a question," her tone, somewhat cold again, made the dazed Li Yan immediately come to his senses. It was just that he hadn't noticed that Gong Chenying had called him directly by his name.
He rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Sixth Senior Sister, if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. I really didn't do anything to you. Besides, now is not the time to talk. We must leave. If you don't believe me, you can deal with this junior after we're safe. How about that?" As he spoke, Li Yan glanced outside the cave, his tone a little anxious.
"You really didn't see anything besides the wound?" Gong Chenying still didn't move, her voice dry and even colder, which made Li Yan feel a sense of unease.
Li Yan's mind raced. 'Inner clothes, chest wrap, I saw those. Do I have to say it out loud?' But seeing Gong Chenying's inexplicably worsening expression, he could only brace himself and say, "Ahem, Sixth Senior Sister, you're the one forcing me to say this. You can't turn around and say I'm shameless afterward."
Hearing Li Yan's words, Gong Chenying's pretty face was instantly covered in a blush, but she still bit her lower lip, staring at Li Yan.
Seeing things had come to this, Li Yan could only sigh in his heart. 'Why did I have to do this? Why did I have to see the effect of the pill? Now this is great. Is she going to make me pay with Spirit Stones? Isn't this losing both the pill and the Spirit Stones? I'll never do this kind of thing again, even if it kills me.' Li Yan was miserable in his heart.
Suddenly, a flash of insight came to him. 'She doesn't want me to marry her, does she? The old scholar in the village used to tell stories with this kind of plot. After seeing a girl's body, the girl would insist on marrying him. But this is the cultivation world! Seventh Senior Brother often said there are no such worldly customs. And there are many women in the sect like Zuo Shengyan who dress very revealingly. They expose more than what I just saw. They usually have large parts of their chests exposed and wear short skirts that only cover their hips. Wouldn't that mean one woman would have to marry many husbands?' Li Yan immediately dismissed this idea.
But he could only hang his head, not daring to look Gong Chenying in the eye. He could only murmur, occasionally stealing glances at her. "The upper inner clothes, the red sash you used to bandage... Sigh, let me make it clear. Apart from the upper inner clothes that had to be taken off, I didn't touch anything else."
In the corner of his eye, Gong Chenying's jade-like face was as red as a burning sunset, beautiful beyond words. After hearing what Li Yan said, although Gong Chenying was infinitely shy, she still stared at Li Yan and suddenly said, "Nothing else?" Her voice trembled, which startled Li Yan for no reason. He quickly said, "Sixth Senior Sister, you can't push people like this. I was just trying to save you. I was just treating your injuries. I really didn't do anything to wrong you. If you don't believe me, I'll pay with Spirit Stones, or you can kill me."
At this, Li Yan looked up at Gong Chenying. He felt that this senior sister was being too dramatic. He had always thought she was direct and straightforward, whether in her personality or her actions. Why was she being so fickle today just because he had saved her? It was a bit of an overreaction. He had lost an eighth-rank pill. Who could he complain to about that?
"You didn't see anything else? I don't believe you... I don't believe you. And you want to pay me with Spirit Stones. Heh heh heh." After hearing Li Yan's words, the blush had already faded from Gong Chenying's face. She turned pale and muttered to herself, a hint of dimness in her eyes. She even glanced at the red sash on the ground that had been used to bandage her wound.
"Sixth Senior Sister, Sixth Senior Sister, what's wrong with you?" Li Yan saw that Gong Chenying's expression was clearly getting worse. He continued, "Everything I did, I did to save you. It was unavoidable that I offended you in the process. Is that not worth forgiving?" His voice was also getting colder. He really didn't know why this usually decisive senior sister was being so erratic today.
"Alright, you can go first. I'll catch up later. I still have some injuries that haven't healed. I need to treat them again. Then, even if I run into Wang Lang, I'll be able to resist a little. Don't mention this matter again in the future." Hearing Li Yan's words, Gong Chenying's expression recovered a little, but she slowly sat down cross-legged, waved her hand, and said to Li Yan.
Seeing Gong Chenying actually sit down, as if she really were going to treat her injuries, Li Yan couldn't help but think to himself, 'I clearly saw her injuries were basically healed just now, yet now she wants to treat them. Could it be that even an eighth-rank 'True Essence Pill' can't restore her?' He stood at the entrance of the cave, staring at Gong Chenying for a moment. In the end, he sighed. 'It seems she really hasn't cooled down and is unwilling to travel with me. Fine.'
Thinking of this, Li Yan turned and walked out of the cave.
But just as Li Yan had taken a few steps, he suddenly stopped. The expression on Gong Chenying's face that he had seen just now flashed through his mind. It was a look of utter despair, a look that seemed to have seen through everything, a vacant and pale look of someone with nothing left to live for. 'That's not right. That was a deathly aura. Sixth Senior Sister is planning to die here.' And at the same time, the object on her smooth, navel-adorned abdomen flashed through his mind—that silver ring. He blurted out, "The ring?"
The moment Li Yan blurted it out, the slender figure of the cross-legged Gong Chenying behind him trembled violently. Her originally tightly shut beautiful eyes instantly snapped open. Then she stared at Li Yan's back, her voice somewhat dry as it came out. "You saw the navel ring?"