Saint Venerable Man Yue's tone was firm. She left no room for negotiation: Li Yun had to submit his reward list today.
What else could Li Yun say?
He had engineered this retreat-to-advance scheme himself. If he kept refusing now, wouldn't that make him a fool?
Besides, it would look far too fake.
For someone like Saint Venerable Man Yue, who considered herself above others, subordinates with desires and ambitions were not the ones to fear. It was those who sought neither fame nor profit and remained unmoved by worldly things.
The former were easy for her to control.
The latter were a headache. Either they were truly upright, or they had ulterior motives.
So Li Yun went with the flow.
He put on a look of gratitude tinged with helplessness, while secretly brimming with excitement.
"Since the Ninth Princess insists, I would be terribly unwise not to submit my list."
"Ninth Princess..."
"I've given it some thought. If possible, I'd like some Saint Venerable Cultivation Techniques to help me understand the Half-Emperor Cultivation Technique you bestowed on me. That technique is simply too difficult."
"Also, I'd like to enter Chaos Heaven Cave again. Would that be possible?"
What could be said of these two requests?
They were neither simple nor excessive.
They fell just within what Saint Venerable Man Yue was willing to grant.
And she had virtually no reason to suspect anything about them.
The reason was simple.
The Chaos Heaven Cave Secret Realm was one of the Evergreen Ancient Domain's chief means of attracting experts from all walks of life. No one who had visited it failed to long for it afterward.
It was like a hot-blooded young man visiting a pleasure house. Which one could remain innocent after that?
Li Yun had been to the Chaos