Seeing this, Li Yan gently raised a hand and placed it on top of the jade-like hand on the table.
Gong Chenying, who was hesitating, felt her body tremble slightly. A long-lost, strange sensation instantly spread throughout her entire body, making her feel as if streaks of lightning were coursing through her.
"Alright, it's fine. I won't take any unnecessary risks!"
Li Yan said with a smile, gently patting the back of her smooth, jade-like hand.
After the slight tremor, Gong Chenying returned to normal. She shot Li Yan a sidelong glance that was slightly reproachful, yet her cold demeanor was tinged with an indescribable charm.
Li Yan was somewhat captivated by her look. Gong Chenying was a ripe peach, yet she lacked the seductive coquettishness, giving people a sense of unapproachable, cold pride.
This filled many men with a strong desire to conquer her. However, everyone knew that Gong Chenying rarely expressed her emotions. Most of the time, she exuded a lofty coldness that made it impossible for anyone to get close.
"Since you've decided, I have two requests for you. First, I must go with you on this trip. Although my strength is inferior, no one in this clan is my match except for the elders."
"On the Wind God Continent, there are many things you don't understand as clearly as I do. Some of the information you gather may not be true, whereas I can give you quick answers."
"Moreover, Father once left something on me so that if I ever had an accident on the battlefield, he could instantly rush over. We can sense each other within a certain range."
"If something unpredictable happens, you can take me into your Spirit-Storing Pouch. Didn't you say this Spirit-Storing Pouch was extraordinary? It's a good opportunity for me to see it for myself."
Gong Chenying's beautiful eyes glanced down at her waist, at the Spirit-Storing Pouch Li Yan had just given her. Without giving Li Yan a chance to speak, she continued.
"In another half a month, my injuries will be mostly recovered. As for refining the other items you gave me, I can do it on the way..."
Gong Chenying didn't want to delay, so she planned to set out as soon as her injuries were about seventy to eighty percent healed.
"...This is the first request. Otherwise, back when your cultivation was not yet enough to protect Min'er, she was able to accompany you across two continents. Could it be that you are not strong enough to protect me now?"
Hearing this, Li Yan found himself unable to say the words of persuasion he had intended. Gong Chenying was clearly giving him no room to maneuver; she was determined to go with him.
If Li Yan were to find another reason to refuse now, it would seem to Gong Chenying that he was favoring one over the other. Besides, he was also bringing the two demons, whose strength was inferior to Gong Chenying's.
Moreover, Li Yan could see that Gong Chenying could only bury her worries about Gong Shanhe deep in her heart. Given the opportunity, she would be unwilling to stay in the clan no matter what.
Li Yan opened his mouth, but could only let out a helpless, bitter laugh.
"Fine! What's the other condition?"
"The other one isn't really a condition. Since you're already going to check on the situation of Father and the Sixth Elder, it can't be just for my sake."
"Therefore, this matter should be brought up with the Great Elder and the others, as a great service to the Tianli Clan. I will be the one to speak of this, and at the same time, I will mention that you have cultivated the 'Qiongqi Purgatory Art.'"
"I will state clearly that you were trapped on the Forsaken Continent and came to take the 'Qing A Wang' assessment after you escaped. They can naturally test the true realm of your 'Qiongqi Purgatory Art' cultivation."
"It's only the third layer, which doesn't violate any clan rules. This point is irrefutable."
"You've already helped our clan disrupt Yan San's plan in the last battle. In addition, this time you're proposing to help our clan investigate the current situation of the Clan Head and the Sixth Elder. I'd like to see what kind of assessment the Second Elder can come up with."
"You already killed a fourth-rank Wind Beast in the last battle. He can't possibly ask you to kill another one, or to directly challenge Yan San, can he?"
"Under those circumstances, the Great Elder wouldn't agree either. And this matter can be made clear to the clansmen. If he has the ability, he can challenge Yan San himself."
"Then I can agree on behalf of Father. As long as he defeats Yan San, the position of Clan Head will be his."
As Gong Chenying spoke, she had already stood up. She had never been one to be indecisive. She was going to explain this to the Great Elder now, and then she had to hurry back to recover her cultivation.
Li Yan looked at the slender figure, her entire being still exuding a familiar, boundless youthful aura. For a moment, the "Sixth Senior Sister" of the past returned to his sight.
This was different from the Gong Chenying he had just seen a month ago. At that time, Gong Chenying had felt like a puppet engaged in slaughter, as if her entire existence was dedicated to killing the Wind Beasts before her.
Li Yan didn't know what Gong Chenying had experienced over the years. And after their brief reunion, Gong Chenying had chosen to go into seclusion to heal, leaving him unable to understand her inner thoughts.
And Gong Chenying, due to Gong Shanhe's disappearance, the massive daily deaths of her clansmen, and the overwhelming, endless attacks of the Wind Beasts, had a heart that once yearned to strengthen the Tianli Clan but was now beginning to see no end, no result.
Especially without Gong Shanhe's rallying cry, although the Tianli Clan members were still fearless in the face of death, they seemed to be slowly losing their vitality.
In the day-after-day slaughter, looking at the seemingly endless swarm of Wind Beasts, Gong Chenying had many worries in her heart but didn't know who she could talk to, or who could discuss with her a way to deal with the Wind Beasts.
The Great Elder, Second Elder, and the others, apart from dealing with the Wind Beasts, were left with mutual vigilance and resentment.
This was not the outcome Gong Chenying wanted to see. She had once simply believed that with Father around, the Tianli Clan would forever be strong.
And all she had to do was not let her father handle everything himself, to share many of his burdens, and make the Tianli Clan stronger and stronger.
Unfortunately, all of this changed with Gong Shanhe's disappearance, with the Second Elder and others using the well-being of the clansmen as a reason to be unwilling to let Nascent Soul cultivators leave the clan to search for Gong Shanhe.
Gong Chenying slowly sank into depression. She knew that her father could only rely on himself to return to the clan. But after more than ten years, what awaited them were increasingly ferocious attacks from the Wind Beasts, and more clansmen dying in multiples.
Perhaps Father couldn't hold on for much longer. In these ten-odd years, she had begun to embrace the certainty of death. She just didn't know when that time would come; perhaps it would be at any given moment.
Whenever she had a moment of leisure, she would think of her father, of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, of that person. But she would only think about the brief time she had spent with Li Yan, replaying scenes she had already recalled countless times.
Gong Chenying had once said that Zhao Min was very lonely. Being left to cultivate in the Wei Family as a child had made Zhao Min's personality solitary; she did not even like her Master or Martial Mother.
But what about herself? She was just as lonely. But she was more like a person walking alone in the wind and snow of a cold night, leaving only a desolate, lonely back in the cold wind.
She had a lamp, but it flickered in the cold wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
Therefore, even when cultivating in the Malevolent Spirit Sect, she had no romantic feelings, only a heart that wanted to become strong as quickly as possible.
Until that incident happened, she became terrified. The clan rules of the Tianli Clan were deeply rooted in every member.
Thinking of her homeland and her father, she still chose that person in silence. She wanted to return to her homeland; she had to fulfill her promise to her father.
So, she couldn't die then, but she wouldn't become Dao Companions with anyone else at that time either!
Later, she slowly came to accept that person, but their brief reunion became an eternal parting, with no news ever since.
After every great battle, when she thought of that person, it was only in the memory fragments of their short time together. Li Yan's calmness, whenever she thought of it, brought her a measure of peace.
Besides that, most of the time Gong Chenying felt a sense of responsibility, a kind of helplessness and reverence that Tianli Clan women felt for the navel ring. In her heart, she had already determined that her identity was forever linked to that person.
After her father disappeared, she would hold the cold halberd in her arms in the dead of night, feeling the endless darkness around her. And that person had only brought a touch of warmth to her indifferent emotions.
"Where is he? Is he still alive? What can he do even if he comes to the Wind God Continent?"
Most of the time, Gong Chenying would think like this, holding her halberd. Yes, what could he do even if he came?
At most, he would be like her, just a Golden Core cultivator. He couldn't influence the battle at all. The most likely outcome was that he would perish here, leaving her with even more heartache.
Not a single day went by without a Tianli Clan Golden Core cultivator dying. Below the Nascent Soul realm, cultivators here were as fragile as straw.
She was only because she was her father's daughter that many people were willing to die for her, blocking attacks that should have killed her.
It would be better to just think of that person as before. He didn't need to come. At least she could still think that he might be alive...
And then one day, just when she had reached the end of her rope, even with clansmen blocking fatal blows for her, that person appeared!
He turned the tide of that life-and-death battle. And what shocked and delighted Gong Chenying even more was that he was already standing among the ranks of the peak experts of this realm, and today he had even taken the initiative to go find her father.
"Find Father!"
This thought had appeared in Gong Chenying's mind countless times, but she couldn't, and it was impossible.
Li Yan gently patted her hand, and those bolts of lightning flashed from the bottom of her heart. Gong Chenying suddenly felt as if she had returned to the Secret Realm Plucking of the past. The road ahead was arduous, but it was already worth looking forward to!
"Little Martial Uncle, wait here. I'll go find the Great Elder first!"
After Gong Chenying finished speaking, while Li Yan was still feeling the change in her aura, she had already walked in front of him and gently hugged him.
Then, she released him just as quickly and turned to leave, leaving a somewhat stunned Li Yan behind. Li Yan could only feel a soul-refreshing, faint fragrance slowly dissipating from the tip of his nose.
At the same time, he felt his chest had just been assailed by two round, firm mounds...
This left Li Yan in a daze, standing in the main hall for a long time without moving!
Gong Chenying flew through the air, her face radiating a long-lost brilliance. At the same time, a pink flush had not yet completely faded from her jade-like neck!
"A Ying, are you healed?"
Just then, a clear and bright voice came from her side and rear, a voice filled with supreme joy and surprise.
Gong Chenying's body paused in mid-flight. She was all too familiar with this voice.
She immediately stopped, and a figure quickly rushed over from the side, then stood shoulder to shoulder with her.
It was a handsome, tall young man with long hair. A pair of pitch-black eyes were staring at Gong Chenying, his face full of joy.
"Almost. Perhaps in a few more days, I'll be able to return to the front lines!"
Gong Chenying said faintly. The gentle breeze in the air caressed her short black hair, pulling it gently across her cheeks, making it flutter...
The long-haired young man's face also lit up with joy upon hearing this. He couldn't help but take a few more steps closer, as if to confirm that Gong Chenying's injuries were really healed.
Seeing this, Gong Chenying's pair of pitch-black, sharp eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she slid back a short distance.
In this clan, apart from her father, she did not like to be too close to any man.
"A Yuan, why aren't you on the front lines today? How is the battle going?"
Gong Chenying saw that her previous action might have been too obvious, and an embarrassed look appeared on the long-haired young man's face. He quickly stopped where he was.
She didn't want to make him too embarrassed, so she also asked.
Within the Tianli Clan, countless young men wanted to get close to her, but due to Gong Chenying's cold personality and noble status, many could only admire her secretly in their hearts, lamenting in vain, not daring to express their feelings.
But there were a few who, due to their prominent clan lineage, boldly expressed their feelings, but were all unceremoniously rejected by Gong Chenying.
However, the men and women of the Tianli Clan were always bold when it came to matters of love. So what if they were rejected? As long as Gong Chenying had not become another man's wife, they would compete openly.
This long-haired young man named A Yuan was the one with the most momentum, one who would not give up until he had Gong Chenying.
His branch was the renowned "Great Liang King" lineage of the Tianli Clan, and he was the "Great Liang King's" favorite eldest son.
More importantly, the "Great Liang King" was the Second Elder's own grandson, so he held great power in the clan and was also greatly favored.
There were a few others like A Yuan, such as the young cultivators from the manors of the "Yin Mountain King" and "Heavenly Scorch King," who also yearned for Gong Chenying's favor. Their backgrounds were not weak either.