44: Chapter 44 Heading to the Oasis

Listening to Li Fan's words,

Shen Xuner's face undoubtedly turned even redder.

What did he mean by 'it's all just a little bit of stuff'?

She truly regretted that her willpower wasn't strong enough.

In her entire life,

she had never had this kind of physical contact with a man.

However, she didn't stay awkward for long before being drawn in by the aroma reaching her nose.

An intense feeling of hunger made her instinctively take the meat.

Taking a bite,

only one word filled her mind:

"Delicious!"

Immediately after, she began to feast heartily.

Li Fan found Shen Xuner's eating manner somewhat amusing.

This girl is truly starving!

"Eat slowly, there's still plenty."

But he had to admit,

his cooking skills had improved tremendously after receiving guidance from Lu Qilai.

Never mind Shen Xuner finding it delicious,

even he felt the same way.

...

After eating her fill,

Shen Xuner felt significantly more relaxed.

Thinking it over, what Li Fan said seemed correct.

For people wandering the martial world, perhaps gender really didn't matter so much.

Who knew if they might meet again in the future.

And so,

Shen Xuner wiped the oil from the corner of her mouth and looked calmly at Li Fan.

"Benefactor, this is the second time you've saved me. I truly don't know how to thank you enough."

"In the future, if there is anything you need my Shen family for, and it is within our capabilities, I will absolutely help you achieve it!"

Li Fan just shrugged, "Alright, stop making empty promises."

"Saving you the second time comes with a different price."

As soon as these words came out, Shen Xuner was completely stunned.

Huh?

A different price?

Did her Shen family currently have so little standing?

One promise wasn't enough?

And she was being told her promise was an empty cake?

After a pause, Shen Xuner held up two fingers,

"Then two times! My Shen family can help you twice!"

Li Fan's expression became somewhat strange.

She was hinting so obviously, yet she didn't offer money or anything.

But considering he had already emptied her out once, he couldn't press the matter further.

"Fine, then twice."

"Oh right, you're a promising seedling from a major family. Why are you alone in this secret realm without any attendant accompanying you?"

Li Fan voiced his confusion at this moment.

Logically speaking, given Shen Xuner's status, even if she didn't have a Dao Protecting Great Elder following her, she should at least have some bodyguards arranged.

She shouldn't have ended up in her current predicament.

Shen Xuner shook her head and sighed,

"I snuck out and was just too confident in myself."

She was the favored daughter of heaven in the Shen family, possessing extremely high combat talent. Fighting across ranks was commonplace for her.

Precisely because she rarely encountered setbacks, she wanted to test if she could slay a Transcendent Rank expert with her current level eighty-two strength.

Now, reality proved that she could not.

Her overconfidence had caused her to pay a heavy price.

"By the way, Benefactor, you aren't from Beizhou City, are you? It seems you haven't heard much about my Shen family."

"Indeed I am not. I rarely pay attention to information regarding families."

...

The two began to chat idly.

They touched upon almost everything, but when it came to private matters, they tacitly stopped short.

During their conversation,

Li Fan not only gained an understanding of the Shen family but also of the entirety of Beizhou City.

In Beizhou City, apart from the orthodox Federal Government and the combat strength of the major Martial Arts Universities,

the other major powers could essentially be categorized into the Twelve Great Families.

These Twelve Great Families controlled nearly sixty percent of the access rights to the secret realms surrounding Beizhou City, earning immense profits every year just from collecting entrance fees.

Furthermore, every single one of the Twelve Great Families had a Quasi-God Rank Awakened One presiding over it.

As for the Shen family,

the Shen family belonged to the middle tier of the Twelve Great Families.

Its foundation was also extremely vast.

The He family, where He Wenguang was from, in terms of overall wealth, likely only amounted to about one-third of the Shen family's.

As for combat strength, never mind that. One Quasi-God Rank Awakened One was enough to annihilate the entire He family.

No wonder He Wenguang fawned over Shen Xuner so much. Besides her good looks, he was likely more interested in the Shen family's assets.

After all,

Shen Xuner was the sole successor of the contemporary Shen family.

Whoever married Shen Xuner would mean gaining considerable influence within the Shen family in the future.

And as for Shen Xuner,

from her current perspective,

Li Fan was a person who was both mysterious and charismatic.

Whether discussing cultivation, life, or even major national affairs, the world structure, or future trends,

Li Fan's words always brought a spark to her eyes, making her unable to stop thinking deeply.

Although she hadn't asked about Li Fan's identity information, she did learn his age.

In Li Fan's own words, it was 'about the same age as you'.

It was the first time she genuinely admired someone of the same age.

After talking, the two also rested separately.

Sandstorms occasionally whipped up outside; it was impossible for Li Fan to sleep outside.

Thus, they both made do inside the tent.

And Li Fan, being so upright, naturally wouldn't do anything improper.

...

They slept until the next morning.

After a night's rest,

Shen Xuner's complexion had clearly improved significantly.

She appeared much more energetic.

After simply finishing the snake meat Li Fan had roasted,

she prepared to part ways with him.

"Goodbye, Benefactor. We will meet again when you visit my Shen family."

"Sure thing."

After Li Fan watched Shen Xuner leave,

he immediately began a new round of training.

...

Time passed unnoticed, two days went by.

Li Fan finished his final round of training and began packing his belongings.

There wasn't much snake meat left.

It was time to head deeper into this secret realm to continue leveling up.

From the information Shen Xuner provided, he knew his current location was a corner of the secret realm's edge.

To reach areas with more ferocious beasts, he needed to go east to the Oasis.

There was a very vast swamp there, home to many giant snakes.

For other Awakened Ones, that place was fraught with danger and generally not recommended.

But for Li Fan, that place was truly an excellent spot for leveling up.

During these two days,

Li Fan had also been studying the "Jidao Fist" in between his training sessions.

This fist technique had a total of eight stances,

and the power of each stance increased exponentially.

Upon mastering the eighth stance, within the duration of those eight stances, a single punch he threw would have its power soar to eight times his original combat strength!

To be fair,

this cultivation method was quite good.

The key element to quickly mastering a cultivation method was only one thing: sufficient practical combat experience!

If one insisted on mentioning comprehension,

other types of cultivation methods might indeed heavily test one's comprehension.

But for physical body cultivation methods, at the Transcendent Rank, frankly, it wasn't the time to rely on comprehension.

Cultivation methods at this stage only required practice to achieve perfection. With enough combat, and sufficiently intense battles, one could slowly grind their way through.

In terms of his physical condition alone, although he still didn't dare to directly confront Transcendent Rank ferocious beasts head-on,

fortunately, not all the ferocious beasts in this secret realm were Transcendent Rank.

So, it was perfect for him to properly practice this "Jidao Fist" in this secret realm.