After a full day of rest, Li An finally managed to regain enough strength to stand, though her legs remained wobbly and required Zhang Hao's steady arm to support her weight. It was still a vast improvement over the day before, when she could barely lift her head—but her meridians were still damaged, her blood essence still depleted, and her face remained deathly pale.
Li An frowned as she assessed her condition.
My menstruation cycle is about to begin.
The realization sent a cold spike of dread through her chest.
With her arm unusable, her body weak, and Zhang Hao still present in the cavern, she would have no way to relieve herself. She couldn't take the Pain Reduction Pill—not without revealing the truth—and that meant she would have to endure the excruciating pain with willpower alone.
Can I even survive it in this state?
Her consciousness had been reshaped by the tribulation, forged into harmony with Wu Meng Ting's body, but the menstrual agony was still overwhelming. And now, weakened and injured, she wasn't sure she could endure it without breaking.
Worse still, they were in immediate danger.
Chen Wu and the eight disciples were still hunting them. The traces left around the cavern entrance would lead the traitors directly to this area. Chen Wu might not be able to pinpoint their exact location, but he would surround the region and wait for them to emerge.
Even at full strength, I couldn't defeat nine late to peak-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.
And Zhang Hao, despite his peak-stage cultivation and high-grade fire spiritual roots, was still only at Foundation Establishment. Against nine coordinated enemies, he would be a liability at best.
Li An's mind raced, calculating their options.
The only way we survive is if Zhang Hao breaks through to Golden Core.
A Golden Core cultivator could suppress Foundation Establishment disciples with ease. Even if they couldn't defeat all nine, they could escape—Foundation Establishment cultivators could never match a Golden Core cultivator's speed.
But there was a problem.
She had the fire-attributed demon core from the monster they'd slain, and she still carried the herbs she'd gathered during her centuries as a male cultivator. But she lacked the critical water-attributed material needed to balance the demon core's violent fire energy and refine a proper Golden Core Formation Pill.
Without a water-attributed ingredient, the pill will be unstable. It could cripple Zhang Hao instead of advancing him.
Li An sighed, her head throbbing.
My body hurts. My brain hurts. And I'm running out of time.
She glanced down at her injured arm, still wrapped in makeshift bandages, and noticed the dried blood residue clinging to her skin.
Wait.
Her blood was yin in nature. Could she use it as a substitute for the water-attributed material?
The idea was sound in theory, but her ordinary blood contained only trace amounts of yin energy—not nearly enough to balance a demon core. And her blood essence, which held far greater concentrations of yin spiritual energy, had been depleted during their desperate escape.
Then Li An's face flushed.
There is one other source.
Her menstrual blood.
Blood produced by her ovaries, womb, and uterus—saturated with the primordial yin spiritual energy of Wu Meng Ting's body. It was a treasure beyond measure, a tonic that male cultivators would kill for.
She knew the stories. Demonic cultivators who plundered yin energy from maidens through sexual intercourse, using their stolen essence to advance their cultivation without regard for talent or spiritual roots. Even a cultivator with low-grade roots could reach the Nascent Soul stage through such methods—but the impurities accumulated in their bodies would make future tribulations catastrophic.
And if a demonic cultivator ever discovered her primordial yin spiritual roots...
They would never stop hunting me.
Absorbing her primordial yin energy would leave no impurities. It would elevate a cultivator's talent, strengthen their physical body, and accelerate their advancement far beyond what ordinary dual cultivation could achieve.
Wu Meng Ting's body is a living divine pill. One that can be harvested again and again.
That was why she could never reveal the truth.
"Li An?"
Zhang Hao's voice broke through her thoughts. He was watching her with concern, his brow furrowed. "Your expression keeps changing. Is something wrong with your body?"
Li An forced herself to meet his gaze.
"Senior Brother Zhang," she said quietly, "we need to talk about our situation."
She explained their predicament in careful, measured terms. Chen Wu's pursuit. The impossibility of fighting nine disciples. The narrow window of escape if Zhang Hao could break through to Golden Core.
"I can refine a Golden Core Formation Pill," she said. "I have the demon core and the necessary herbs. If you succeed in forming your core, we can escape."
Zhang Hao's eyes widened. "You... you know pill refinement? At that level?"
"I've studied many arts over the years," Li An said evasively. "I can guide you through the process. But we need to act quickly—"
She stopped mid-sentence.
A sudden, sharp cramp twisted through her lower abdomen.
No. Not now.
"Li An?" Zhang Hao stepped closer, alarmed. "What's—"
The cramp intensified, and Li An gasped. Her legs buckled, and she would have collapsed if Zhang Hao hadn't caught her.
Then the blood came.
It poured from between her thighs in a hot, heavy rush, soaking through her robes and pooling on the cavern floor in seconds.
"Li An!" Zhang Hao's voice rose in panic. "You're bleeding—did your wound reopen? Did you hide an injury—"
"I'm fine," Li An gasped, though the pain was already building into a roaring wave. "Just—don't move. Please."
She wrapped her arms around him and clung tight, burying her face against his chest.
Zhang Hao froze, his body going rigid. "Li An, you need treatment—"
"I said I'm fine," she whispered, her voice strained. "Just... stay still. Please."
The pain was excruciating.
It radiated from her womb in pulsing, relentless waves, each one worse than the last. Her muscles clenched and spasmed, her lower abdomen cramping so violently that she could barely breathe.
And she couldn't take the Pain Reduction Pill.
Not with Zhang Hao right here. Not without revealing the truth.
So she held him, her fingers digging into his robes, and endured.
The next three days were a waking nightmare.
Li An clung to Zhang Hao almost constantly, her body wracked with pain. She groaned softly when the cramps peaked, her breath hitching, her grip tightening until her knuckles turned white.
Zhang Hao, for his part, did not move.
He sat with his back against the cavern wall, his arms carefully positioned so he wasn't touching her inappropriately, and let her hold him as tightly as she needed.
But it was torture.
The intimate contact—her soft body pressed against his, her breath warm against his neck, the quiet, pained sounds she made—was slowly driving him insane.
He was a healthy man. A man who had developed feelings for the woman clinging to him. And every groan, every shift of her hips, every time her thighs brushed against his leg, tested the limits of his self-control.
She's in pain. She's injured. She trusts you.
He repeated the words like a mantra, forcing himself to stay still, to keep his breathing steady, to ignore the heat building in his lower body.
Don't lose control. Don't do something you'll regret.
On the third day, the bleeding finally stopped.
Li An pulled back slightly, her face pale and exhausted. "Senior Brother Zhang," she said quietly, "I need you to turn around."
Zhang Hao blinked. "What?"
"Turn around," she repeated. "And don't look."
He obeyed immediately, turning to face the cavern wall.
Behind him, he heard the rustle of fabric.
Li An was removing her robes.
Don't think about it. Don't imagine it. Don't—
The sound of cloth sliding over skin was impossibly loud in the silence.
Zhang Hao's face burned. He clenched his fists and stared at the stone wall, his heart pounding.
She's just changing clothes. That's all. Don't—
"You can turn back now."
He turned slowly.
Li An was dressed in fresh robes, her expression calm and composed. In her hand, she held a small jade bottle, sealed tightly.
"I'm ready to refine the pill," she said.
Zhang Hao nodded, still trying to calm his racing pulse. "What do you need me to do?"
"Your spiritual energy," Li An said. She moved to the center of the cavern and retrieved a small pill cauldron from her storage ring. "My meridians are still damaged. I can guide the refinement, but I'll need you to channel the fire."
She held out her hand.
Zhang Hao took it.
Her fingers were cold and delicate, her grip surprisingly strong. She guided his hand to the cauldron, her touch steady and precise.
"Channel your spiritual energy slowly," she instructed. "I'll control the flow."
Zhang Hao obeyed, sending a thread of fire-attributed spiritual energy into the cauldron. The metal began to glow faintly, heat radiating from its surface.
Li An added the ingredients one by one.
Herbs. Powders. Fragments of spiritual materials.
Then the demon core—a fist-sized sphere of condensed fire energy that pulsed with violent yang power.
And finally, she opened the jade bottle and poured in a thick, dark red liquid.
Zhang Hao's eyes widened. "Is that—"
"A rare yin-attributed material," Li An said smoothly. "It will balance the demon core's energy."
She didn't mention what it truly was.
Hours passed.
Li An's hand never left Zhang Hao's, guiding his spiritual energy with meticulous precision. Sweat beaded on her forehead, her breathing shallow, but her focus never wavered.
Finally, the cauldron chimed softly.
Li An released Zhang Hao's hand and opened the lid.
Inside, a single pill rested on the bottom—golden-red, radiating intense heat and spiritual pressure.
"It's done," she said quietly.
Zhang Hao stared at the pill, his expression awed.
"This is... a high-grade Golden Core Formation Pill."
Li An nodded. "Take it. Break through. And then we escape."
Zhang Hao picked up the pill, his hand trembling slightly.
"Thank you, Li An."
She met his gaze, her black hair framing her pale, delicate face.
"Don't thank me yet, Senior Brother. Survive the breakthrough first."
Zhang Hao nodded, closed his eyes, and swallowed the pill.
It was time for him to ascend to the Golden Core stage.
The moment the pill crossed Zhang Hao's lips, it melted into a stream of searing, liquid fire.
His eyes flew open in shock, the pupils contracting to pinpricks as a wave of crimson radiance erupted beneath his skin. The sheer potency of the pill was staggering—far beyond any ordinary Foundation Establishment medicine. Yet, just as the violent, unrestrained heat of the Golden Core beast threatened to incinerate his internal pathways, a soothing, crystalline stream of dark red coolness surged forth from the center of the flame, wrapping around his vital organs like a shield of liquid silk.
"Li An..." Zhang Hao gasped, his breath emerging as glowing, red-gold vapor. He stared at her, his face flushed with unbearable heat, yet his eyes shone with awe and reverence. "What... what was that yin herb? The power within it... it isn't just balancing the beast's core. It's soothing my dantian, clearing centuries of impurities in a single breath..."
Li An stepped back, pressing her right hand against the rocky wall to steady her trembling legs. Beneath the plain, disguised skin of Li An, her true body—Wu Meng Ting's peerless, intoxicating form—still ached with deep, lingering fatigue. Her womb, having shed days of primordial yin essence, remained acutely sensitive, pulsing with a faint, hollow warmth that radiated through her lower belly down to the tops of her thighs.
"Do not speak, Senior Brother," Li An urged, keeping her voice level, though the melodic softness inherent to her vocal cords carried a breathless tremor she couldn't entirely mask. "The pill's balance is delicate. That yin tonic was distilled from the purest life essence I could provide. If you waste its potency talking, the fiery yang will overwhelm your heart meridians."
Zhang Hao reached out, his calloused hand instinctively wrapping around her slender, uninjured right wrist. His palm was burning hot, radiating the raw, surging power of his high-grade fire spiritual roots, yet his touch held a gentle, hesitant reverence.
"You look so pale, Li An," he whispered, searching her ordinary, unassuming disguise with genuine tenderness. "Your left arm... the blood you lost... you sacrificed so much just to forge this chance for me. Even in the sect, while everyone praised my talent, you were the only one who truly understood how close I was to reaching this step."
Li An felt a strange, involuntary tremor ripple through her chest. In her previous life, as a proud male prodigy who had lived for two centuries, words of admiration from another man would have felt absurd or irritating. But now, trapped within the soft, receptive vessel of a woman—a body forged from primordial yin that instinctively craved harmony with potent yang—Zhang Hao's intense gaze and burning touch made her heart flutter with an unsettling, feminine flutter.
Over the fifteen years in the Frost Cloud Pavilion, the lines between her former identity as Li Feng and her present reality had blurred. Her thoughts, her gait, her reactions, and even the subtle instinct to seek shelter against a strong chest had woven themselves deep into her soul during the tribulation. Zi Qing had repeatedly teased her, insisting she harbored hidden feelings for Zhang Hao; while Li An had always scoffed at the idea, in moments like this, she couldn't entirely deny the quiet warmth blossoming in her chest.
Gently, yet firmly, Li An pulled her wrist from his burning grasp.
"We are fellow disciples of the Frost Cloud Pavilion, Senior Brother," she said softly, avoiding his intense gaze. "I have only done what was necessary for our mutual survival. If you wish to repay me, do not fail your breakthrough. Chen Wu and the others will not wait forever."
Zhang Hao smiled, a determined, radiant expression breaking across his sweat-sheened face. "I won't fail. When I open my eyes again, I will be a Golden Core cultivator. I swear on my Dao heart, Li An... Chen Wu will pay for every drop of blood he forced you to shed, and I will protect you with my spear for the rest of our days."
Without waiting for her reply, Zhang Hao closed his eyes and crossed his legs into the five-point lotus posture. He rested his hands on his knees, his crimson spear laid across his lap, its blade humming in resonance with his skyrocketing spiritual pressure.
Fwoosh!
A column of fiery golden spiritual energy burst from his pores, swirling around his seated form like a raging vortex. The medicinal power of the Golden Core Formation Pill had fully unraveled, violently flooding through his meridians and crashing into his dantian. The demon core's violent flame provided the colossal energy required to compress his spiritual sea into a solid sphere, while the primordial yin blood she had contributed acted as the invisible loom, binding the turbulent fire into a harmonious, unyielding lattice.
Li An watched him for several seconds, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
A spear cultivator with high-grade fire roots, nourished by primordial yin... she thought, her ancient tactical mind assessing his state. His Golden Core will not merely be ordinary. It will possess a grade far surpassing standard cultivators. But that also means...
Her gaze snapped toward the ceiling of the cavern.
The tribulation will be terrifying.
Li An gritted her teeth, ignoring the dull, throbbing ache in her useless left arm and the weakness pulling at her depleted blood essence. She reached into her storage pouch and withdrew several jade formation flags, along with three complex formation disks she had personally inscribed using the knowledge accumulated from her past life.
Moving swiftly, she placed the disks at key structural points along the cavern floor, tapping them with precise threads of her mid-grade yin spiritual energy.
"Concealment of the Nine Shadows, activate," she murmured.
A pale, translucent barrier rose around the cavern walls, absorbing the intense heat and light spilling from Zhang Hao's breakthrough. To any cultivator scanning the mountain from afar, this hidden fissure would appear as nothing more than solid, unremarkable volcanic basalt.
However, Li An knew better than anyone that mortal formations could fool human eyes, but they could never deceive the Heavenly Dao.
Rumble...
High above the mountain peak, the sky began to change.
The thick, sulfuric clouds of the volcanic region parted as a vortex of cosmic energy began to churn. Winds howled across the crags, carrying the distinct, ozone-heavy scent of heavenly wrath. A deep, oppressive weight settled over the entire mountain range—the unmistakable signature of a Golden Core Tribulation.
Li An limped toward the narrow slit of the cavern entrance, peering out through the concealed barrier.
In the distance, across the jagged volcanic ridges, several streaks of spiritual light halted in mid-air.
"Look at the sky!" a distant, harsh voice echoed through the canyon—Chen Wu. "That isn't a natural storm! Someone is condensing a Golden Core!"
"Senior Brother Chen, it must be Zhang Hao!" one of the female disciples from the Punishment Peak called out, her voice laced with panic. "He took the demon core! If he successfully ascends, none of us will leave this mountain alive!"
"Form the perimeter!" Chen Wu roared, his peak-stage Foundation Establishment aura flaring with ruthless desperation. "The core takes time to solidify, and the tribulation lightning will leave him defenseless! We have nine Foundation Establishment cultivators! Find where the heavenly energy is converging, breach his seclusion, and slaughter him before the core forms!"
Li An's dark eyes narrowed into cold, lethal slits.
Nine late to peak-stage Foundation Establishment disciples: four from the Formation Peak, two ruthless enforcers from the Punishment Peak, and two elite vanguard swordsmen from the Sword Peak, led by Chen Wu.
Against such a force, an injured woman with damaged meridians and a paralyzed arm should have been helpless prey.
Li An reached behind her back with her right hand and drew her weapon.
It wasn't a magnificent, glowing artifact. It was a simple, jet-black iron rod—completely devoid of an edge, a guard, or a decorative hilt. It was the failed forging attempt from Zhang Hao's youth, a discarded piece of heavy iron that she had chosen upon joining the Mystic Peak. Yet, in her delicate, slender hand, that clumsy piece of black iron felt more natural than the finest divine blades.
She adjusted her footing, her hips swaying slightly as she sank into the foundational stance of the Mystic Yin Sword Art.
Even beneath the plain, unremarkable skin of Li An, her movements carried an innate, mesmerizing grace. The curve of her slender waist, the gentle flare of her soft hips, and the arch of her supple spine shifted with fluid, serpentine elegance. As she drew upon her sword, the cold, serene essence of the yin qi coiled around her legs, light and weightless.
In her past life as Li Feng, his swordsmanship had been ferocious, domineering, and rigid—like a blazing sun crushing all before it. But over the last fifteen years, her physical form had reshaped her understanding of the sword. A woman's body was not built for brute collisions; it was built for flow, for evasion, for the lethal, piercing precision of cold water finding the cracks in armor.
Crack!
A deafening thunderclap shattered the heavens, rattling the cavern walls and sending a cascade of dust showering over the rocks.
Above the mountain, the tribulation clouds had coalesced into a terrifying, swirling eye of crimson lightning and swirling purple thunderclouds. The Heavenly Dao had locked onto Zhang Hao's surging aura, gathering the first strike of heavenly judgment to test the newborn core.
Inside the cavern, Zhang Hao let out a pained, guttural roar as the pill's energy reached its zenith, a radiant, golden orb slowly solidifying within his abdomen.
Outside, the frantic shouts and rushing footsteps of the nine traitors drew closer, their weapons drawn, racing toward the cavern mouth beneath the shadow of the gathering storm.
Li An stood alone at the entrance, her pale face calm, her black hair whipping in the violent wind spilling through the fissure. She raised the black iron rod with one hand, pointing the blunt tip straight toward the approaching shadows.
Above them, the sky tore open, and the first blazing arc of tribulation lightning plunged straight down from the heavens.