I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

Inside the cave, the candlelight flickered.

The Blood Slave lay on the stone bed, her body covered in blood, her breath weak. Her eyes were half-open, half-closed, the cold light of the luminous pearl reflected in her pupils like two blood-red gems covered in dust. Li Hanshan stood beside the stone bed, looking down at her. After a moment of silence, he took out a healing pill from his storage bag and held it to her lips.

"have eaten."

Blood Slave turned his head away, ignoring him.

Li Hanshan wasn't annoyed. He placed the pill beside her pillow, turned around, and sat down at the other end of the stone bed, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing. He knew this woman wouldn't cooperate easily. A Nascent Soul cultivator, falling from grace and being used as a furnace, would be something no one would willingly accept. But it didn't matter; he had plenty of time. He would take it slow.

In the days that followed, Li Hanshan fed the Blood Slave healing pills daily, using pure Yang energy to nourish her meridians. The Blood Slave initially resisted fiercely, refusing to eat or drink, rejecting the pills, and even attempting to self-destruct. However, Li Hanshan's protective seal was firmly in place, preventing her from even attempting self-destruction. She cursed him, insulted him, and attacked him with the most vicious language, but Li Hanshan ignored her completely, continuing to feed her the pills and heal her wounds as usual.

Hua Nongying watched from the side, clicking her tongue in amazement: "Hanlang, you're too patient with her. If it were me, I would have slapped her long ago."

Li Hanshan said calmly, "She is a Nascent Soul cultivator; it would be a pity to kill her."

Hua Nongying pursed her lips and said nothing more.

A month later, the Blood Slave's injuries improved somewhat, and the cracks in her dantian began to heal. Her resistance also gradually weakened, not because she resigned herself to her fate, but because she realized that Li Hanshan was genuinely helping her heal, not torturing her. Those healing pills were all top-grade; in the Blood Fiend Sect, only elders were qualified to use them.

"Why did you save me?" she finally asked, her voice hoarse and her eyes full of wariness.

"Because you are a Nascent Soul cultivator," Li Hanshan said calmly. "A dead Nascent Soul cultivator is useless to me."

The blood slave was silent for a moment, then asked, "You want to use me as a furnace?"

"Yes."

The Blood Slave showed no anger or curses, only a cold laugh before closing his eyes.

Li Hanshan looked at her and suddenly said, "One hundred years. You help me for one hundred years, and after one hundred years, I will set you free."

Blood Slave suddenly opened his eyes and stared intently at him, as if trying to discern the truth or falsehood in his words.

"You swear." Her voice trembled slightly.

Li Hanshan shook his head: "I won't swear. Believe it or not."

The Blood Slave stared at him for a long while, the wariness in her eyes gradually turning into a complex emotion. She bit her lip, finally saying nothing more, but simply turning her head away and closing her eyes.

Li Hanshan knew she believed him. Not completely, but at least there was a glimmer of hope. A hundred years is a lifetime for mortals, but just a period of time for a Nascent Soul cultivator. She had cultivated for hundreds of years; a hundred years was nothing to her.

Actually, he doesn't need a hundred years.

At his cultivation speed, he could break through to the Nascent Soul stage in ten or twenty years at most. At that point, the Blood Slave would be far less useful to him. Releasing her would simply be a matter of convenience. But if he told her the truth now, she wouldn't believe him. A hundred years would be a timeframe that a Nascent Soul cultivator could accept.

In addition, Li Hanshan also wanted to try the Yang Ce technique to see if it was effective for Nascent Soul cultivators.

If a flower with three petals can control the life and death of a nascent soul, then it would be even simpler.

Two more months passed, and the Blood Slave's injuries had mostly healed. The crack in her dantian had completely closed, and her cultivation had returned to the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. Her complexion had improved considerably; a trace of color had returned to her pale face, and her blood-red eyes were no longer filled with hatred as before, but rather with indifference and numbness.

That night, Li Hanshan unbuttoned her clothes.

The Blood Slave's body stiffened slightly, but she did not struggle. She lay on the stone bed, staring at the luminous pearl on the cave ceiling, saying nothing. Her blood-red eyes were devoid of any emotion, like a stagnant pool.

The Yang Ce Gong technique was quietly activated.

The pure Yang energy flowed into the Blood Slave's body, colliding fiercely with her bloodthirsty energy. This time, he sensed something completely different—the origin of the Nascent Soul.

It was an energy purer and more abundant than the origin of the Golden Core, surging into his dantian like a rushing river. Under the impact of this energy, the Immortal-grade Golden Core spun wildly, its purple-gold light shining brightly, and the patterns on its surface flowed endlessly as if alive.

Li Hanshan was startled. Just as he was about to refine the energy with all his might, he suddenly realized something.

Blood Slave's body trembled slightly, not from pain, but from a tension he had never seen before. Her fingers gripped the mattress beneath her tightly, her knuckles white, her lips bitten until they turned purple, and finally, a flicker of emotion appeared in her blood-red eyes—not hatred, not anger, but an indescribable shame.

Li Hanshan stopped and looked down at the blood slave beneath him.

Her body was stiff, like a stone. Her eyes were fixed on the top of the cave, unable to look at him. There were no marks on her body, no old scars, no signs of sexual intercourse; she was clean and tidy, as if she had never been touched.

Li Hanshan suddenly understood.

This is the first time I've been a blood slave.

A Nascent Soul cultivator, having cultivated for hundreds of years, has still maintained his virginity. This is unimaginable in the Joyful Union Sect, but it might not be impossible in the Blood Fiend Sect. The Blood Fiend Sect's cultivation methods are based on blood fiend energy, emphasizing blood sacrifice and plunder, unlike the Joyful Union Sect's practice of sexual exploitation. A blood slave's ability to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage likely doesn't rely on sexual relations.

"Relax," Li Hanshan said calmly.

The blood slave didn't speak, he just closed his eyes.

In the days that followed, Li Hanshan practiced dual cultivation with the blood slave almost every day.

The origin of the early Nascent Soul stage was an inexhaustible treasure for him. Each time he cultivated with the Blood Slave, he could extract a large amount of Nascent Soul origin from the Blood Slave, then refine and absorb it through the Yang Scroll technique. Nourished by this pure energy, the Immortal-grade Golden Core grew larger and brighter, the patterns on its surface became denser, and the oppressive aura it emitted grew stronger.

The bottleneck at the peak of the Golden Core stage finally began to loosen under the continuous impact of the Nascent Soul's essence.

Three months later.

That night, Li Hanshan sat cross-legged on the stone bed, with Xue Nu sitting opposite him, their palms touching. He activated the Yang Ce technique at full power, and the primordial essence of his nascent soul surged from Xue Nu's body into his dantian, like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea, converging into a vast ocean.

The celestial golden elixir in his dantian suddenly trembled.

The patterns on the surface of the golden core lit up simultaneously, bursting forth with a dazzling purple-gold light. The entire golden core began to expand, growing from the size of a pigeon egg to the size of a chicken egg, and then from the size of a chicken egg to the size of a fist. The pure yang fire inside the golden core burned fiercely, and the heat it emitted warmed his limbs and bones through his dantian.

The Golden Elixir has reached its peak.

Li Hanshan opened his eyes, a flash of purple-gold light appearing briefly within them. He looked down at his hands, feeling the power within him that was several times stronger than before, and was both surprised and delighted.

The Golden Core stage is at its peak, just one step away from the Nascent Soul stage.

The Blood Slave withdrew her hand, staring coldly at him. Her face was even paler than before, and her aura was somewhat weak. Over the past three months, Li Hanshan had absorbed a significant portion of her nascent soul essence. Although her cultivation level hadn't dropped, she could clearly feel a deficit.

"You've broken through." Her voice was indifferent, revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Yes." Li Hanshan nodded. "Thanks to you."

The Blood Slave didn't reply; he simply turned his head away and refused to look at him again.