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

"What other method?"

Bai Lu tilted her head, her eyes full of confusion.

Shen Yifei looked into her eyes, and her expression didn't seem fake.

This snake demon had reached the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, yet she didn't even understand matters between men and women. Her method of absorbing yang energy was ridiculously primitive—biting her neck like a baby nursing.

"Miss Bai, when you were absorbing yang energy, did you feel anything was wrong?"

"Something's not right?" Bai Lu thought for a moment. "Young Master's yang energy is very sweet; there's nothing wrong with it."

"I'm talking about how you feel," Shen Yifei pointed to her chest. "After you finished, does it feel congested here?"

Bai Lu's eyes widened slightly.

"How did you know, young master?"

"I understand medical principles," Shen Yifei said without changing his expression. "Your method of absorbing yang energy is too crude. If the yang energy is not properly channeled after entering the body, it will accumulate in the heart meridian, which will cause serious problems over time."

"What's the problem?"

"At best, it will cause blockage of the heart meridians and stagnation of cultivation. At worst, it will lead to qi deviation and rupture of the heart meridians."

Bai Lu's expression changed slightly.

She placed her hand on her chest and probed it with her divine sense. There was indeed a dark golden energy stagnating in her heart meridian, the yang energy she had absorbed from Shen Yifei last time. The energy was blocked in the very center of her heart meridian, and she couldn't dissolve it no matter how many times she tried.

"Does the young master have a solution?"

"There is a way," Shen Yifei said, holding up one finger, "but we need to do it differently."

"In what way?"

"Dual cultivation".

Bai Lu's expression was as if someone had splashed a bucket of cold water on her face. She stood up, took a step back, and her light blue dress trailed across the white sand, leaving a faint mark.

"no."

Why?

"No means no." Bai Lu's voice turned cold, and the pressure of her Nascent Soul realm was immediately released.

Shen Yifei felt his shoulders slump under the pressure, his back pressed against the stone wall. His late-stage Golden Core cultivation was like paper in front of the late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, but he did not show the slightest fear.

"Miss Bai, what are you afraid of?"

"I am not afraid."

"Then why don't you dare to cultivate dual cultivation?"

Shen Yifei's shoulders creaked under the weight, but he still smiled.

"Let me guess. Is there something pressing down inside you? A surge of heat rises from your lower abdomen, up to your chest, and down to your throat. Every time you inhale yang energy, that heat subsides for a few days. But it doesn't last long before it surges back up, even stronger than before. The more yang energy you inhale, the stronger it rebounds."

Bai Lu's expression changed.

How did you know?

Shen Yifei shrugged with difficulty. "You're a snake demon at the Nascent Soul stage, absorbing yang energy without dual cultivation, just biting with your mouth. It's like someone having chopsticks but not using them, instead eating with their hands."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I can help you."

"What can you, a mere Golden Core cultivator, do to help me?"

"Just by smelling it, I can tell what's suppressed within you." Shen Yifei looked directly into her eyes. "You've forcibly suppressed it for hundreds of years, and it's created a ball of fire. That fire isn't demonic power, it's not spiritual energy, it's your own nature. You can't sever it, nor can you refine it. It is you, and you are it."

"Do you know what's pressing down inside my body?"

"Miss Bai, don't you know what that is?" Shen Yifei stopped two steps away from her, tilting his head to look at her. "You've suppressed it for hundreds of years, and you still don't understand what it is?"

"I don't need to figure it out. Just keep it under control."

"Suppress it?" Shen Yifei chuckled. "You call that suppressing it? That fire surges up every few days, and every time you suppress it, it rebounds, each time more violently than the last. You're currently in the late Nascent Soul stage, so you can still suppress it. But once you break through to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, it will double in intensity. What will you use to suppress it then?"

Shen Yifei was right.

In the last hundred years, she has clearly felt that the fire in her heart is becoming increasingly difficult to suppress. In the past, one dose of yang energy could last for ten days to half a month, but now one dose can only last for two or three days.

If this trend continues, once she breaks through to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, that fire will be completely out of control.

"Does the young master have a solution?"

"have."

"What method?"

"Let it burn."

"No." Bai Lu's face showed fear.

"Why not?"

"I'll die if I burn it out."

"Who said that?"

"From my own experience, every time that fire surged upwards, I felt like I was going to be burned to ashes. If I were to completely let go, I wouldn't last even the time it takes for an incense stick to burn."

She had this feeling since the day she achieved Core Formation.

It felt like a fire burning inside her, making her restless. She asked her master about it, and he said it was the nature of a snake demon; if she could suppress it, she should, and if not, she should find a man.

But her master didn't tell her what this thing was or why she needed to find a man.

So she chose to suppress it.

"Can you control it?"

Shen Yifei took a step forward.

Bai Lu took a half step back, her lower back bumping against the stone wall. She looked up, and moonlight slanted in from the cave entrance, illuminating her face. For the first time, panic showed in her clear eyes.

"Don't come any closer."

"Miss Bai, you sneaked into my cave in the middle of the night, squatted in front of my bed, and smelled my scent. Now you want me to stay away?"

Shen Yifei took another step.

The two were now less than a foot apart. The scent of medicine emanated from him and entered Bai Lu's nostrils. The fire within her surged upwards, from her lower abdomen to her chest, and then from her chest to her throat.

She bit her lip, forcing down the fire within her.

Shen Yifei watched as her throat bobbed slightly and smiled.

"Does it feel good when you press down?"

"It's none of your business."

"How can it not be my business?" Shen Yifei braced himself against the stone wall beside her ear, leaning forward slightly. "Why didn't you say this when you were absorbing my yang energy?"

Bai Lu turned her head away from him. The lines of her profile appeared exceptionally soft in the moonlight, and a layer of fine downy hair on her earlobe stood up slightly due to nervousness.

Shen Yifei lowered his head and leaned close to her ear.

"Miss Bai, you've suppressed yourself for hundreds of years, and what has been the result? The more you suppress that fire, the stronger it grows, and the harder it is to suppress it. You absorb my yang energy, which is the firewood, and your fire is the oil. You add firewood to the oil, and the fire burns even brighter."

He was right. Each time she absorbed yang energy, the fire would indeed subside for a few days, but it would rebound even more fiercely soon after. She had always thought that she hadn't absorbed enough, but now she realized that she might have been on the wrong path from the very beginning.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Shen Yifei chuckled. "You think it'll burn you to death, but it really will? You, a demon king at the late Nascent Soul stage, don't even understand your own true form, living entirely based on your feelings?"

Bai Lu suddenly turned her head, her nose almost colliding with Shen Yifei's.

"What right do you, a mere Golden Core cultivator, have to lecture me?"

"On what grounds?"

Shen Yifei took half a step forward.

The two were already only a fist's distance apart, and when she took that half-step, Bai Lu froze.

"Stay away from me," Bai Lu said, her voice tense.

Shen Yifei didn't listen to her at all.