Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 100: Long-term Plans

Li An found a desolate and uninhabited place and waited until late at night to take action under the cover of darkness. He first arrived at the mountain stream and then sneaked into the crocodile pond, digging up everything he buried four years ago.

He casually killed two crocodiles and roasted them to eat.

He carefully counted and classified the supplies.

First were his own belongings: a turtle shell shield, a soul-stabilizing horn, wind-riding shoes, a second-tier pen that Xu Qiuhui gave him, and dozens of second-tier talisman papers.

Then there were his spoils, mainly including:

Over 21,000 spirit stones worth thousands of various basic supplies.

The more high-end items were a second-tier lower-grade Frost Sword, two second-tier spirit herbs, and a low-quality Foundation Building Pill.

Over 20,000 spirit stones and high-end supplies were easy to carry, three intermediate storage bags were enough.

But there were too many other basic supplies, and it would not be easy to sell them in the future.

After thinking for a while, the next morning, he headed towards the "Four Scenic Mountains."

The Four Scenic Mountains were all desolate mountains and wild ridges, located in the area between the Sword Sect and the Beast Sect, where many bandits and robbers hid.

And one of his puppets, Zhao Yi, who had disguised himself as "Li An" and went to Zhaojia Town, was hiding here with a group of people.

After spending three days, Li An finally confirmed Zhao Yi's location, and then spent half a month investigating the surrounding situation.

A month later, when Zhao Yi and his group were preparing to attack another stronghold, Li An secretly helped them, allowing them to successfully capture it and throw a large amount of basic supplies into the stronghold's warehouse.

After all, it would be inappropriate for Zhao Yi to inexplicably obtain so many supplies in the stronghold.

The risk had to be completely eliminated.

And in this way, Li An could "whiten" the batch of supplies he gave.

Moreover, throughout this process, Zhao Yi never met Li An and had no idea that this was Li An's arrangement!

Even for him, this was just a casual move.

Let Zhao Yi develop freely, and if he developed well in the end, Li An could easily reap the benefits.

"It's a pity that the Blood Flesh Furnace Technique has significant side effects..."

Li An couldn't help but sigh.

In recent years, he had come to understand the Blood Flesh Furnace Technique more and more. Although this technique was domineering, the side effects were also terrifying.

The master's control over the blood flesh puppet was one-sided, but the existence of the blood flesh puppet would also affect the master's state of mind and increase the risk of the master going astray. The longer the time, the more obvious it became.

Li An had already discovered that in his spiritual platform, there was a slight trace of dark dust.

If it weren't for the connection between the spiritual platform and the life seed, he would almost be unable to detect it.

When he broke through to the Foundation Building stage in the future, this thing would cause great trouble!

Fortunately, he tried to mobilize the power of the life seed to resolve it, and the speed of resolution was just enough to balance the speed of generation, keeping his spiritual platform clear.

In other words, he could only control two puppets at the moment.

Any more would be more harm than good!

Moreover, every time he "manipulated" a puppet, the speed at which the dark substance was produced would also accelerate.

Therefore, he had to control the quantity and not use the puppets unless it was a critical moment.

As long as Li An didn't activate them actively, the "demonic seed" left in the blood flesh puppet's spiritual platform would be like a dormant "virus," not showing any effects in normal times, and everything would be normal with the puppets.

After completing all of this, Li An left directly.

...

Half a month later.

Li An reappeared in front of Tianyang City.

This time, he appeared as a poor and destitute middle-aged man with gray hair at his temples.

The city's investigation had already been canceled two years ago, leaving only a magical tool hanging at the city gate, which was said to be able to detect demonic auras.

Li An smoothly entered the city and lingered there for a while before renting a residence at the end of "Anle Street."

Anle Street was close to the "Second-tier Spirit Vein" area, but it still belonged to the "commoner district." The nearby "Wuyang Street" was much taller and more luxurious, belonging to the true second-tier spirit vein area.

Moreover, Wuyang Street is the territory of a powerful force - Treasure Pavilion!

When Li An was in Baihu City, he had dealings with the branch of Treasure Pavilion. In the past four years, he had made inquiries from various sources and gradually learned some information.

Treasure Pavilion seems to have a close relationship with the Great Li Dynasty.

Moreover, Treasure Pavilion is also the center for various rare resources.

This is Li An's goal!

To find an opportunity to enter the inner circle of Treasure Pavilion, there is the greatest possibility of accessing the rare resources he needs!

In reality, as a lone cultivator, Li An has been focusing on cultivating and relying on the technique of nurturing life to forge an immortal body. By the time he reaches the Foundation Building stage, he will seek assistance from supplementary pills. He does have hope of forming a Golden Core.

But what he would form in that case would most likely be a "True Dan."

In this new life, Li An's goal is a Gold Core!

After all, becoming a Gold Core is the solid foundation for future advancement to the Nascent Soul stage.

He needs to have a long-term perspective!

And Li An knows very well that in order to form a Gold Core, besides relying on his spiritual root talent, he also needs some special resources to lay a solid foundation.

The external manifestation of forming a core is the solidification of spiritual liquid, but in reality, it is the first rooting of the Dao within the cultivator's body!

If one is a prodigy with a great background, they might even consume some spirit medicines containing the Qi of the Dao during the Foundation Building stage, making it almost certain that they will form a Gold Core.

Li An does not expect such things. Those kinds of spirit medicines are probably not even available within the entire Great Li Dynasty.

What he wants is the "Dao Poison Medicine"!

As the name suggests, the Dao Poison Medicine does not contain the Qi of the Dao, but rather the poison of the Dao!

This kind of spirit medicine generally grows in places where spiritual energy is chaotic and the earth's energy is turbid, so the spiritual energy there is abundant, but it also becomes contaminated with the turbid Qi of the Dao, forming a potent poison.

However, Li An knows that the Dao itself is chaotic, and among the countless turbid Qi, there are often traces of the Qi of the Dao. However, purifying it is almost impossible.

Therefore, the Dao Poison Medicine is generally used as a poison and cannot be used for cultivation by anyone.

If it weren't for the miraculous effect of his "life seed" in detoxifying, Li An wouldn't dare to have any thoughts about this kind of spirit medicine. Most likely, he would only be able to follow the path of forming a True Dan.

...

And the Dao Poison Medicine is not only extremely rare, but it is also very similar to ordinary poisonous spirit medicines, making it difficult to distinguish.

If he were to collect it himself, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack, purely relying on luck.

But it's different when entering Treasure Pavilion. Dao Poison Medicines are generally highly spiritual, so they are often taken by collectors to auction houses and spiritual medicine stores as rare medicines.

And in Tianyang City, the largest force in this regard is Treasure Pavilion.

His target is the "Appraiser" within Treasure Pavilion!

The appraiser is responsible for identifying various rare items sent through various channels. They have the widest range of contacts and are the most convenient for him to find Dao Poison Medicines.

But to become an appraiser, there are only two channels:

One is to be chosen and nurtured by Treasure Pavilion from a young age. This is usually reserved for extremely talented orphans, which Li An is no longer eligible for.

The other is to be recommended by the current appraiser and pass the assessment, which is also a viable path.

Li An chose the latter.

After inquiring for the past few years, he also roughly understood the situation within Treasure Pavilion. Currently, there are ten ordinary appraisers, three senior appraisers, and one chief appraiser.

And among the ten ordinary appraisers, the oldest one, Song Mingzhang, lives in Wuyang Street.

...

In the following period of time, Li An secluded himself, using the existing brushes and talisman paper at hand to create second-grade talismans while carefully observing.

In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.

On this day, Li An walked to the "Yun Dao Teahouse" on Wuyang Street.

Entering the teahouse, a waiter greeted him, and Li An found a quiet corner and sat down without lifting his head, saying, "Bring two pots of invigorating spirit tea, with a slightly bitter taste!"

He took out a few books and immersed himself in studying.

...

(End of this chapter)