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

Xu Lingxi's words startled Li Hanshan.

Take off all your clothes?

Seeing Xu Lingxi's shy and timid face, he immediately understood that Xu Lingxi thought he was going to use himself as a furnace to help her cultivate.

"What's on this child's mind?"

Li Hanshan chuckled, then realized another problem: why did he treat Xu Lingxi like a child? His actual age wasn't much older than hers.

It seems that this hundred-year-old body is to blame.

He suppressed these thoughts, walked to the bed, sat cross-legged, pointed to the opposite side, and said, "You don't need to take off your clothes, just sit down opposite me."

"oh."

Xu Lingxi obediently took off her cloth shoes and sat cross-legged opposite Li Hanshan.

"Reach out and relax."

Li Hanshan asked her to extend her hands, and then, following the example the maid in his dream had taught him, he began to teach Xu Lingxi how to open her meridians.

Xu Lingxi had been cultivating for over a month. Although he hadn't opened his meridians, he had gained some insights into cultivation, which made teaching him much easier.

"Grandpa Li, you really know a lot."

Xu Lingxi closed her eyes, feeling the warm current flowing through her body, and a look of surprise appeared on her pretty face.

Li Hanshan knew nothing about cultivation; he was merely copying what the girl had taught him. He taught Xu Lingxi exactly how she had taught him. As for whether it would work, he had no idea.

Time passed little by little.

The candlelight in the room flickered three times, and the sky outside the window turned from pitch black to a pale dawn. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Xu Lingxi's forehead, her face flushed red, and her body trembled slightly.

"It still doesn't work..."

Xu Lingxi opened her eyes, her eyes red-rimmed, her voice trembling with tears: "Grandpa Li, am I too stupid?"

"No rush, let's try again."

Li Hanshan offered gentle words of comfort, but a sense of unease lingered in his heart; time was running out.

For the next few days, Li Hanshan taught Xu Lingxi how to open her meridians every day.

But no matter how I tried, there was no progress.

On the fifth night, Xu Lingxi finally broke down.

She withdrew her hands, tears streaming down her face like a broken string of pearls, sobbing uncontrollably, "Grandpa Li, I really can't... I'm so useless... I don't want to be a furnace... but I really can't do it..."

"Don't cry."

Li Hanshan's heart softened, and he reached out to rub her head: "I'll try other methods."

He hesitated for a moment, then decided to take the risk.

He probed Xu Lingxi's body with his spiritual energy, carefully sensing along her meridians. The girl had taught him that spiritual energy perception was a basic skill; as long as one was careful enough, one wouldn't harm the other person.

After circulating his spiritual energy throughout Xu Lingxi's body, Li Hanshan finally discovered the problem.

Xu Lingxi's meridians were not blocked, but rather one extremely hidden meridian was naturally closed. This meridian was hidden very deep and could not be detected by ordinary methods, let alone opened.

"I see."

Li Hanshan suddenly realized.

No wonder Xu Lingxi hadn't opened her meridians after cultivating for over a month. The problem wasn't with her aptitude, but rather with this hidden meridian causing the trouble.

"Lingxi, I've found the problem."

Li Hanshan opened his eyes and said, "There is a closed hidden meridian in your body. As long as you open it, you can successfully open the meridian."

Xu Lingxi looked up with tear-filled eyes, still doubtful: "Really?"

Trust me.

Li Hanshan took a deep breath and channeled his spiritual power towards the hidden pulse. He intended to use his spiritual power to push it away.

"Buzz!"

The spiritual energy struck the closed meridians, producing a buzzing sound. Xu Lingxi groaned, her face turning deathly pale, and she bit her lip tightly.

"Hold on!"

Li Hanshan didn't stop and launched three more attacks.

However, each impact felt like it was tearing Xu Lingxi's meridians apart. She trembled all over in pain, tears streaming down her face, but she stubbornly remained silent.

at last!

"Pop!"

With a soft sound, the closed hidden meridian was suddenly opened!

As this hidden vein was opened, Li Hanshan seized the opportunity and, in one fell swoop, helped Xu Lingxi open her spiritual vein!

Xu Lingxi felt as if something inside her body had exploded, and an unprecedented power surged out from her dantian, rushing along the newly opened meridians.

"It's open...it's really open..."

She opened her eyes with joy, her vision blurred by tears.

However, before she could be happy for long, a sudden change occurred!

Suddenly, an extremely terrifying cold energy surged from her body, bursting forth like a flood bursting its banks!

The chilling aura was so intense that it even affected the room; the candlelight was blown out, a thin layer of frost formed on the windowpanes, and the air itself seemed to freeze.

"This is......"

Li Hanshan's pupils suddenly contracted.

This chilling aura resonated strongly with the pure yang energy within his body! His blood was boiling, his heart was pounding, and every pore was greedily absorbing this energy.

It looks so tempting.

Like a beggar who has been starving for three days suddenly seeing a Manchu Han Imperial Feast, Li Hanshan's rationality was screaming wildly: Absorb it! Absorb it and your cultivation will skyrocket!

His hand unconsciously reached out towards Xu Lingxi.

Xu Lingxi was stunned by this sudden turn of events, staring blankly at Li Hanshan, not understanding what had happened.

"No!"

Li Hanshan bit his tongue, and the intense pain brought him back to a sliver of clarity.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, using all his willpower to suppress the impulse.

Xu Lingxi trusted him, respected him, and treated him as an elder, not to mention that she had once helped him. If he were to take advantage of someone in distress, how would he be any different from those vixens of the Hehuan Sect?

"call......"

Li Hanshan closed his eyes, forcing himself not to look at Xu Lingxi, and not to feel the temptation of that chilling aura.

But at this moment, Xu Lingxi's body began to tremble violently.

At first, it was just her fingers trembling slightly, but it quickly spread throughout her body. Her lips turned bluish-purple at a visible speed, and a layer of white frost formed on her eyebrows and hair, making her look as if she had been thrown into an ice cellar.

"Grandpa Li... I'm so cold..."

Xu Lingxi's teeth chattered, her voice was broken and intermittent, and her face was as pale as paper. She curled up, her hands clasped to her chest, but she couldn't stop the chill that seeped from her very bones.

Li Hanshan didn't care about anything else and pulled her into his arms.

"It's alright, Grandpa Li is here."

He held Xu Lingxi tightly, trying to warm her with his body heat. But the chilling aura was too domineering; even his body began to frost over, and it couldn't warm her in the slightest.

Xu Lingxi's body grew colder and colder, her breathing became weaker and weaker, and her eyes began to glaze over.

Li Hanshan's heart tightened, knowing that if things continued like this, Xu Lingxi would probably freeze to death.

"Lingxi, listen to me."

He cupped Xu Lingxi's face in his hands and said in a deep voice, "There's too much yin energy in your body; some of it needs to be drawn out. My pure yang body can suppress it, but..."

He paused for a moment, then said, "But I might have to kiss you first."

Xu Lingxi vaguely heard these words, and her lips, which were purple from the cold, moved with difficulty: "Grandpa Li, you can suck it..."

"It's not sucking, it's kissing...you have to use your mouth."

Li Hanshan explained.

Besides using her mouth, there is another way, but that would defile Xu Lingxi's body.

Xu Lingxi's consciousness was already fading; all she knew was the cold, the chill that felt like she was dying. Hearing his words, she nodded almost instinctively: "Grandpa Li, go ahead and kiss me... I won't blame you..."

By the end, her voice was barely audible, and her eyelids drooped heavily.

"Lingxi! Don't sleep!"

Li Hanshan shouted loudly, no longer daring to hesitate.

He lowered his head and kissed Xu Lingxi's cold lips, fully activating his Yang Ce technique, drawing out the chilling energy like a whale sucking in water.

The extremely yin energy entered Li Hanshan's body and merged with his own pure yang energy. The interaction of yin and yang produced a miraculous reaction. Li Hanshan felt his entire body's meridians tremble, and his cultivation level surged like a tidal wave!

He actually broke through from the early stage of the third level of Qi Refining to the peak in one fell swoop.

After reaching his peak, he broke through to a new level.

Fourth level of Qi Refining!

The momentum only gradually subsided after it reached the peak of the fourth level of Qi Refining.