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

Shen Yifei climbed onto the stone bed. Leng Shanyue glared at him, her eyes red-rimmed and her teeth clenched.

Shen Yifei looked down at Leng Shanyue's menacing expression and hesitated for a moment.

"Miss Bai, I'm a little worried about her condition."

"What's there to be afraid of?"

"I'm afraid she'll bite me." Shen Yifei pointed to his neck.

Bai Lu slapped him on the back of the head.

"Stop talking nonsense. If she bites you, bite her back."

Leng Shanyue gritted her teeth, making a grinding sound.

"Do you two think I'm dead?! Fine, if you dare to come at me, I'll bite you to death!"

Shen Yifei stopped talking, leaned down, but kept a distance from her mouth.

Leng Shanyue held on, the veins on her neck bulging, but worrying was useless. She was like a cripple, unable to move!

Shen Yifei reached out and placed his hand on her lower abdomen, his palm touching a hot, hard lump. It was a shell formed from the spiritual energy of the lotus seed, completely encasing her demon core.

"Senior Leng, relax a bit."

"Don't call me that...it disgusts me..."

Shen Yifei wasn't annoyed. He pressed his palm against the hard lump and slowly channeled his yang energy into it.

As soon as the yang energy seeped in, Leng Shanyue trembled all over.

Bai Lu watched coldly from the sidelines.

"How is it? How does it feel?"

"It's terribly hot..."

"Yes, that's right! His yang energy is extremely pure and can counteract your yin-cold constitution."

Leng Shanyue gripped Shen Yifei's flesh tightly, causing Shen Yifei to twitch in pain.

"Senior Leng, please...please be gentle, please stop grabbing me! You're tearing my flesh off!"

"Stop talking nonsense...hurry up, or that vixen will be dead!"

Shen Yifei continued to channel Yang energy. The dark golden spiritual energy flowed from his palm into Leng Shanyue's dantian, and when it touched the lotus seed shell, her body bounced up as if she had been electrocuted.

Bai Lu grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't move. The shell is starting to melt."

Leng Shanyue's eyes widened in surprise.

"You dare!"

"You think I wanted this?" Shen Yifei looked down at her. "My yang energy belongs to Miss Bai. Every bit I give you is a bit less. And you're not even grateful."

Bai Lu sat down beside her. "You two, stop dawdling. You vixen, your life is more important; you can worry about saving face later, once you're alive."

Leng Shanyue bit her lip and remained silent. Large beads of sweat rolled down her forehead.

Shen Yifei no longer hesitated.

Leng Shanyue froze. "Fathead Snake, you...you're going to sell me out?"

"Sell it to you? Who would want you? You're all skin and bones, nobody would want you even if you paid them. His vital energy can dissolve your spiritual shell, so shut up and cooperate, don't waste time."

"I'd rather die than have him cooperate..."

Bai Lu grabbed her shoulder and said, "Stop being stubborn. You're not afraid of death, so why are you afraid of this? Just think of it as being bitten by a dog."

Shen Yifei stood by the bed. "Miss Bai, why does that sound so awkward?"

"What are you hesitating for? Hurry up." Bai Lu took two steps back, leaned against the stone wall, and crossed her arms. "I'm watching."

Shen Yifei climbed onto the stone bed. Leng Shanyue tried to push him away, but her hand was too weak to move against his chest.

"You...you male dog, stay away from me."

"Senior Leng, you call me a dog, but you're holding me pretty tightly."

"I...I wanted to strangle you."

"Then try harder."

Leng Shanyue scratched him hard, leaving three red marks on his chest without even breaking the skin. She bit her lip, her red eyes glaring at Shen Yifei, her eyes red-rimmed, whether from pain or anger, it was hard to tell.

Shen Yifei lowered his head and whispered something in her ear.

Leng Shanyue roared, "Even if I break through, I will still kill you... Ah..."

"Fathead snake! Your man... couldn't he have told you beforehand?!"

Bai Lu leaned against the stone wall, a smirk on her lips. "You'd still call out to me if I told you, so what difference does it make whether I tell you or not?"

"You...you've all ganged up on me!"

"It's your own fault for being so strong-willed. Who told you to swallow all nine lotus seeds at once?"

"Senior... there's a crack in the shell," Shen Yifei reported truthfully.

"You...you slow down..."

"If you're too slow, it won't dissolve."

Bai Lu laughed, "You sly fox, you were cursing so fiercely just now, and now you're just whining like that, what kind of talk is that?"

"I'll hum... I'll hum my own... it's none of your business..."

"It's none of my business. I'm just reminding you that your tail is smoking."

Leng Shanyue turned his head and saw that thin wisps of smoke were indeed rising from the tips of the nine tails, and their fur was all curled. That was the result of the yin fire that had accumulated in his body being forced out by the yang energy.

"My tail!"

Forget about the tail, worry about your life.

Leng Shanyue wanted to retort, but the words turned into a muffled groan.

"what!"

"What's wrong?"

"The shell is broken... a piece is broken..."

Bai Lu straightened up from the stone wall, walked over quickly, and placed her hand on Leng Shanyue's dantian to probe it. After a moment, she withdrew her hand, her expression relaxing slightly.

"Forty percent is broken, and sixty percent remains."

Bai Lu said to Shen Yifei, "Keep going. Her demon core can already transform, and she can also partially dissolve the remaining shell herself. Just keep pushing."

Leng Shanyue suddenly reached out and grabbed Shen Yifei's wrist.

Stop.

"What's wrong?"

"I'll do the rest myself..." she gasped for breath. "If you keep going like this, your yang energy will be depleted, and I don't want to owe you my life if you die."

"If you were to dissolve that 30% shell on your own, how many days would it take?"

"Three days...five days..."

Shen Yifei glanced at Bai Lu.

Bai Lu shrugged. "Let her be. Anyway, her demon core can circulate, so she won't die."

Leng Shanyue sat up on the stone bed, clutching her stomach. Half of her nine tails were charred, making them look like nine sticks of firewood. She looked down at her disheveled appearance, then looked up at Shen Yifei.

"Get out."

Shen Yifei jumped off the bed.

"Senior Leng, you should get some rest."

"I don't need you to pretend to be a good person." Leng Shanyue flicked her tail and turned her face to the stone wall. "Once I dissolve the rest of the shell, the first thing I'll do is settle accounts with you."

"We'll talk about it after it dissolves. For now, lie down and rest."

Leng Shanyue didn't turn around, stubbornly sticking her neck out. Bai Lu walked over and slapped her down.

"sleep."

Shen Yifei and Bai Lu sat at the entrance of the cave. Bai Lu looked down at Shen Yifei's wrist and saw three red marks on it, which were from Leng Shanyue pinching him.

"Does it hurt?"

"External injury".

"She has sharp claws; next time, make her trim her nails before she touches you."

Shen Yifei chuckled, "There'll be a next time?"

Bai Lu glanced at him. "What, is once enough?"

"It's not that we don't have enough, it's that we're afraid."

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid she'll bite me." Shen Yifei touched his neck. "She looks at me like I'm a piece of meat."

Bai Lu's lips curled up slightly. "She's faking it. The fiercer she sounds, the more insecure she is."

How did you know?

"My neighbor is three hundred years old. I can tell what kind of poop she's going to take just by the way she sticks her tail up."

Bai Lu looked at the moon and suddenly sighed, "She swallowed nine lotus seeds in one go, afraid of falling too far behind me. She's so proud that she suffers for it."

Shen Yifei leaned against the stone wall and listened. He heard Leng Shanyue turning over inside the cave, her tail slapping against the stone bed with a soft thud. After a while, the sound stopped and was replaced by faint snoring.

Bai Lu stood up. "I'll go find her some medicine to treat her tail. You guard the entrance and don't let anyone in."