Ye Han's Extortion

Hearing him call her "big sis," the woman in white frowned.

"If you can give me a reasonable explanation, I can have Steward Mo waive your punishment."

Lu Nan looked at her in astonishment and disbelief. "You can waive my punishment? How am I supposed to believe you?"

"That depends on your explanation!" As she spoke, the woman in white tossed him a token.

"An Elder Token?" Lu Nan examined it, dumbfounded.

He had never expected this Mysterious Woman to actually be an Elder. Lu Nan immediately dared not neglect proper etiquette.

He hurriedly bowed. "Disciple Lu Nan greets Elder."

Seeing the restraint on his face, the woman in white said blandly, "I'm not one. It belongs to my master!"

Lu Nan's eyes widened. Just how much did her master dote on her?

Her master had actually given her even the token. But after learning that she was not an Elder—

He relaxed considerably. "Fine!"

He then explained, "I was inscribing Talismans at the Spirit Treasure Pavilion!!!

I lost track of time for a moment, which was why I skipped work for half a month."

Then he lowered his voice. "How about this! Help me waive the punishment, and I'll give you five Medium-grade Spirit Stones. How about it??"

The woman in white did not respond. With a wave of her slender hand—

Lu Nan's Ring appeared in her grasp. Without another word, she sent her Divine Sense into it.

"No!! Don't go in!!" Lu Nan's face blanched in shock.

He did not want his Divine Sense to be injured, but he was ultimately one step too late.

The woman in white took out all the Spirit Stones from Lu Nan's Ring and looked at him with amusement.

"One hundred and fifty. You thought five stones would send me on my way??"

Lu Nan flew into a rage. "You... you have no martial virtue! You actually stole someone's Ring!!"

In his anger, he had already overlooked the fact that she had bypassed his Soul Imprint and opened his Ring.

"If I hadn't, how would I have known you were lying to me??" the woman in white shot back sharply.

Lu Nan's expression turned awkward at her words. "Th-this... but you still can't steal someone's Ring!"

Then he added, "How about this! I'll give you fifty stones. That should be enough, right??

After all, you didn't do anything, yet you're getting fifty stones."

But the Mysterious Woman merely swiped her hand and pocketed one hundred of them.

Lu Nan panicked at once. "You can't do this!!! I'd rather go to Steward Mo and take my punishment."

"I'll put in a good word for you with Steward Mo!"

After putting the remaining fifty stones back into his Ring, the woman in white tossed it to Lu Nan.

Lu Nan hurriedly caught the Ring thrown at him, on the verge of tears.

But he could only accept reality. Who told him he was weaker than her?

After taking a deep breath, he shot the woman in white a vicious glare.

Lu Nan turned and headed for his room. But before he knew it, his vision blurred—

The woman in white was standing before him again. Lu Nan trembled from head to toe in fury.

"What else do you want???" If he could beat her, he would have pinned her down and beaten her black and blue.

"How many grades of Talismans can you inscribe now???"

Lu Nan rolled his eyes. "I don't know!!!"

With a sharp swish, Lu Nan felt a chill against his neck.

"You... this is inside the sect. I don't believe you'd dare kill me!!"

"I can't kill you, but no one said I can't beat you up!!"

As soon as the words fell, Lu Nan felt a sharp pain in his right eye.

Before he could react, his left eye hurt as well.

"Hey!! Wait, wait!! Stop! Stop!!" Lu Nan shouted as he dodged.

But the woman in white had no intention of stopping. After taking several solid hits—

Lu Nan hurriedly shouted, "First grade! First grade!! Don't hit me anymore!! Don't hit me anymore!!"

Sure enough, the moment he answered, the woman in white stopped her assault.

She returned to her former icy beauty demeanor and looked at him thoughtfully. "First grade?"

Then she turned and left. Ignoring the pain, Lu Nan called after her, "If you've got the guts, leave your name!!"

"Ye Han!" The woman in white paused, tossed out those words, and drifted away.

"Ye Han?? I'll remember you!!" Lu Nan gritted his teeth.

Then he limped back to his room, carefully climbed onto the bed, and began meditating to recover.

A short while later, Lu Nan looked completely renewed.

At the same time, he discovered that his physical body had risen by another level in strength.

This delighted him greatly. Upon thinking it over, he realized it had been Ye Han's doing.

Though the beating had hurt terribly at the time, most of the injuries had merely been superficial.

Lu Nan could not help feeling grateful, but he quickly snapped back to his senses.

"Damn it! Are you some kind of masochist? You got beaten into such a miserable state—

and you're actually grateful to her??? Pah... pah pah..."

He tossed the cluttered thoughts from his mind.

Lu Nan got up and stretched his body, then began considering his plans for the future.

"There is still one year until the Azure Desolate Secret Realm opens. During this year, there's basically no need to focus on raising my cultivation.

But I can't let it fall behind either. I just need to place my emphasis elsewhere.

The yearly disciple assessment is coming soon. With my current strength, becoming a Formal Disciple should not be a problem.

My talent is poor, so if I want to advance, I'll need a massive amount of resources.

The professions that can quickly bring in resources are Alchemy, Talisman Crafting, and Artifact Crafting.

I already have two of those. As for Artifact Crafting, there's no rush for now.

Taking everything into account, I have a relatively complete inheritance in Alchemy.

So I should place the bulk of my effort into Alchemy, Talisman Crafting second, and Artifact Crafting last.

Once I become a high-grade alchemist, it shouldn't be too difficult to drive the other two professions forward.

Finally, I can't neglect any cultivation techniques related to comprehension."

After sorting it all out, Lu Nan immediately had a clear direction.

During the year before the Azure Desolate Secret Realm opened, the main focus of his cultivation would be Alchemy.

He would strive to enter the ranks of third-grade alchemists before the Secret Realm opened.

Talisman Crafting would come second, and he could not let his cultivation in other areas fall behind either.

The moment he decided, he acted. After tidying up—

Lu Nan took out Talisman materials from his Ring, intending to first complete this month's task.

Looking at the materials spread out before him, he pondered for a moment before picking up his brush and beginning to inscribe.

They were still Divine Speed Talismans and Golden Body Talismans. Perhaps because the grade of the materials had improved—

This time, Lu Nan's success rate for fifty Talismans was nearly one hundred percent.

Apart from ruining two at the beginning due to being somewhat rusty—

All the rest succeeded on the first attempt. This left Lu Nan with quite a bit of material remaining.

Looking at the completed Talismans on the table, a faint smile appeared on Lu Nan's slightly pale face.

With a wave of his hand, he stored them all in his Ring. Once the time came, handing them to Fu Ye would bring him another batch of Spirit Stones.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he meditated for a while and recovered considerably.

Some color returned to his pale cheeks as well. "Looks like I still need to take things step by step in the future!!"

He then closed his eyes and continued recuperating.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.

At the moment the morning sun rose, Lu Nan, seated cross-legged on his bed, suddenly opened his eyes.

He let out a long breath, sweeping away yesterday's exhaustion.

He leaped off the bed, moved about a little, and pushed open the door.

He still had to stand watch at the Book Collection Pavilion. Lu Nan did not want anyone catching him by the handle again.

As he thought about it, Ye Han's icy face surfaced in his mind once more. "Damn woman..."