The Hehuan Sect cultivates alchemy; my senior sister helps me refine alchemy throughout the world.

Bai Lu looked down at Shen Yifei. His face was as white as paper, his lips were gray, and his eyes were sunken, as if he had lost ten pounds overnight.

She absorbed 70% of his yang energy, leaving only the last 30% barely clinging to life in his dantian.

She licked her lips, a trace of dark golden spiritual energy still clinging to the corner of her mouth—the color of Shen Yifei's yang energy mixed with the pure yin energy of the snake demon.

"Young Master's yang energy is indeed abundant. He absorbed seventy percent of it and is still alive. It's rare to see someone with such resilience even with a ruptured dantian."

She leaned down, pressed her lips to his forehead, and gently kissed him.

"Considering that the demon of passion risked his life to protect his master, I will leave you with 30% of your yang energy. 30% will allow you to recover in a month or two. I will come back to find you then."

She stood up, and her light blue dress automatically closed up, the silver patterns on her back gradually disappearing beneath her skin.

The white fog began to dissipate.

Shen Yifei saw her turn around and walk into the fog. After a few steps, she stopped, turned her head, and revealed half of her face.

The white mist dissipated.

Shen Yifei suddenly opened his eyes.

The campfire was still burning. He lay on the cold ground, feeling as if all his bones had been removed, unable to even lift a finger.

The White Dew has disappeared.

The little monster at the cave entrance lay on the ground, its head buried in its paws, fast asleep. Shen Yifei called it twice, but it didn't even twitch its ears.

"Stop calling it." Liu Mengli floated out of the cauldron, her face pale. "It's under a spell and won't wake up for a while."

Shen Yifei tried to sit up, and it took him three tries to prop himself up. He leaned against the stone wall, panting heavily.

"What...is that woman?"

"A snake demon." Liu Mengli squatted down in front of him, reaching out to probe his dantian. "Her cultivation is at least in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, possibly even higher. She concealed her demonic aura so well that neither the Demon of Love nor I could smell it."

Shen Yifei looked down at himself. He was dressed perfectly, exactly as he had been before he fell asleep.

But he knew it wasn't a dream.

The feeling of emptiness in my dantian was real, the feeling of my limbs being as soft as noodles was real, and the two tiny red dots on my throat were real too.

He reached up and touched his throat, his fingertips touching two slightly raised spots, like mosquito bites. They didn't hurt, but they felt cool.

"Where is the Demon of Love?"

Liu Mengli paused for a moment.

"She tore off five of my love threads, damaging my very essence. Now I'm curled up unconscious in your heart. I'm not dead, but I won't wake up anytime soon."

Shen Yifei closed his eyes and pressed the back of his head against the stone wall.

A snake demon in the late Nascent Soul stage had been watching him ever since he was outside Qingmu City. She deliberately lured the black bear demon to attack, intentionally got injured, and deliberately acted pitiful to get close to him. She acted all day long, just to absorb his yang energy.

It's strange. With such a high level of cultivation and such strong strength, it would be easy for her to push me down, so why did she have to go through so much trouble?

Shen Yifei has slept with many women, but he has always been the one who takes advantage of others, never the other way around.

This time, things got really bad. He was pinned to the ground by a snake demon who drained seventy percent of his yang energy, leaving him without even the strength to fight back.

"Master, in your current state, let alone Black Pine Forest, it's questionable whether you can even get out of this cave." Liu Mengli took out a few Yuan Yang Pills from her storage ring. "Eat them all; every little bit helps."

Shen Yifei took the pill and swallowed it all in one gulp.

The Yuan Yang Pill dissolved, and its scalding medicinal power flowed throughout the body via the meridians. It felt as if a pot of hot water had been poured into the dantian, filling the emptiness it had felt. Some strength returned to the limbs, at least enough to stand up.

The little monster was still fast asleep at the cave entrance, its tail occasionally twitching, as if it were having some kind of dream.

Shen Yifei squatted down, pried open the little monster's mouth, and looked inside. Its tongue was black.

"Poisoned?"

"It's not poison, it's residual demonic magic. The snake demon's demonic power has condensed into a ball inside its body, blocking its spiritual meridians. It'll be fine once it digests it on its own; it won't die."

Shen Yifei released his grip, and the little monster's mouth snapped shut, continuing to snore.

He retrieved it into the Cauldron of All Things and then checked the state of the Demon of Love. The icy mass in her chest had shrunk into a small ball, coiled up like a hibernating snake. Five strands of love threads had been broken, the remaining ones huddled around her, trembling slightly.

"The Demon of Love," he tried calling out.

No response.

"Stop calling her, she can't hear you." Liu Mengli floated onto his shoulder and sat down. "Having five strands of love severed is like losing five fingers. She's in a self-protective state right now, retracting all the remaining strands. When she'll wake up depends on her own recovery ability."

Shen Yifei didn't say anything more. He reinforced the barrier at the cave entrance and sat down again by the campfire.

The medicinal power of the Yuan Yang Pill slowly dissolved in his dantian, and the warmth gradually spread to his limbs. However, the feeling of having seventy percent of his yang energy drained was like a tree with seventy percent of its roots removed; it looked like it was still standing, but it would sway in the wind.

He closed his eyes and went through what had just happened in his mind from beginning to end.

The snake demon, a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, had been watching him ever since he was outside Qingmu City. She deliberately lured the black bear demon, deliberately got injured, and deliberately feigned a pitiful appearance to approach him. She acted all day long; every expression and every word was meticulously planned.

But there's one thing he can't understand.

A demon king in the late Nascent Soul stage, wanting to absorb his yang energy, could simply take action. With her cultivation level, she could pin him to the ground with a single finger. Why bother with all this acting?

"She wants you to do it willingly," Liu Mengli suddenly said.

Shen Yifei opened his eyes.

"There are two ways for snake demons to absorb yang energy. One is to use force, to extract it directly, like pumping water. This method is the fastest, but the yang energy will be mixed with fear and resistance, so it doesn't taste good to her and has side effects. The other way is to make the prey give it willingly, preferably during dual cultivation. When the prey is aroused, the yang energy is the purest and most concentrated, so it not only tastes good but also nourishes her cultivation."

Liu Mengli paused, "She acted all day, just to make you fall for her. As long as you have even a little bit of feeling for her, your yang energy will automatically flow to her during dual cultivation. She doesn't need to exert any effort to withdraw; your own body will send the yang energy up to her."

"She left me with 30% of my yang energy, not because of those few strands of love from the Demon of Love," Shen Yifei said calmly. "She wanted to nurture me until I recovered before absorbing it from her."

"That's right. When raising pigs, you can't slaughter them all at once; you have to fatten them up before slaughtering them."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yifei was filled with rage!

To treat yourself like a pig is simply unbearable!

Take 70%, leave 30%, and wait until it's fattened up before taking more. Repeat this cycle, endlessly.

This is practically treating him like a furnace!

Who can tolerate this? But a weapon cannot!

"Master, what are you thinking about?" Liu Mengli floated in front of him, her green eyes fixed on him.

"How do you want to kill her?"

"Kill a snake demon in the late Nascent Soul stage? You can't even stand up straight now."

Shen Yifei remained silent. He was indeed unsteady on his feet, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this snake demon didn't want his life, but his yang energy. He had plenty of yang energy.

However, there was something wrong with how she absorbed yang energy.

She sucked it in with her mouth, biting her throat, a brutal method that drew away yang energy mixed with impurities.

Why doesn't she use dual cultivation?

Could it be that she's afraid of dual cultivation?

Snakes are inherently lustful. She, a snake demon in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, actually sucks on yang energy with her mouth instead of engaging in dual cultivation.

It seems this is a breakthrough point!