Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 12: Fan Jie's Secret

A man and a woman, alone in a room, the atmosphere somewhat romantic.

Zhang Susu exudes a charming aura, her face flushed, seemingly uncomfortable.

"Susu, what do you need my help with? Otherwise, we should leave the door open..." Li An didn't want to cause any misunderstandings.

"No, we can't open the door." Zhang Susu seemed nervous. "You can trust me, I've observed, there's no one around."

"Li An, it's like this, I've been feeling feverish recently, as if there's a fire burning inside me, and some parts of my body hurt... But most importantly, most importantly..." She seemed to have something difficult to say.

"Are you sick?" Li An asked.

Zhang Susu nodded anxiously. "Yes, I think I'm sick. You often read medical books, right? I wanted to ask if there are any herbs that can cure it."

Li An smiled bitterly. "Susu, you overestimate me. I only know some basic knowledge. You should seek help from the sect's physician."

"No, Fan Jie doesn't allow me to tell anyone. If he finds out, he will kill me..." Fear flashed across Zhang Susu's face. "I have no other choice, Li An, please help me! As long as you're willing to help, I'll do anything for you."

She pleaded, clearly at her wit's end.

Li An furrowed his brows. You don't dare to ask someone else, so you come to me?

This is trouble I brought upon myself...

But since Zhang Susu has come, and what shouldn't be known is already known, he could only say, "Then let me take a look. Susu, can you roll up your sleeves?"

Zhang Susu quickly rolled up her sleeves, revealing her fair arms, disregarding any boundaries between men and women.

Li An carefully examined her and saw red patches on her fair skin, distributed along the blue veins, as if something was congested. When he lightly touched it, he could feel a burning sensation.

"It's indeed fire poison," Li An's heart skipped a beat.

He had sensed that something was amiss as soon as Zhang Susu entered.

Based on Li An's past experience, this kind of situation usually occurred when someone took a fire attribute spiritual medicine but didn't guide it properly, causing the fire poison to spread throughout the body and unable to be expelled.

Moreover, to generate so much fire poison, at least a top-grade spiritual medicine had to be consumed!

Top-grade spiritual medicines were extremely precious, and Zhang Susu, a lowly servant, couldn't possibly obtain them.

"Fan Jie!"

This was the only possibility.

Coupled with Fan Jie stealing spiritual energy and not allowing Li An and others to go up the mountain...

Fan Jie must have secretly cultivated a hidden medicinal field on the mountain, growing some kind of fire attribute spiritual medicine!

He couldn't sell or refine the medicine he privately cultivated, so he could only swallow it directly?

But the consequence of doing so was that Fan Jie himself had accumulated a lot of fire poison.

And Zhang Susu... was most likely used by him as a tool for detoxification.

"Li An, do you want to take a look at my thighs... it's even worse there." Zhang Susu bit her lip, her face growing even redder, as she prepared to undo her pants.

"No need," Li An hurriedly stopped her. The area below was where the fire poison was concentrated, and he could already guess the situation.

He thought for a moment and said, "This should be some kind of skin disease. You can go and collect some lotus leaves yourself and soak them in water to apply."

"Thank you, thank you, Li An!" Zhang Susu was extremely grateful.

"By the way, Susu, the lotus leaves are something you found yourself, it has nothing to do with me... I don't want to cause trouble."

Zhang Susu nodded quickly. "I understand, I won't say anything!"

...

After she left.

Li An pondered.

If Fan Jie could expel so much poison from Zhang Susu's body, it meant that he had accumulated even more in his own body.

He had been going out these past few days, probably to find a solution.

However, detoxifying poison was not an easy task. Unless a alchemist could refine a Clearing Origin Pill to cleanse his meridians.

Did Fan Jie have such connections? That was a question mark.

If he could find a way to suppress it, that would already be good enough.

This gave Li An an idea.

Fan Jie had already been poisoned by fire, so he only needed to stimulate it with something with the opposite toxicity. The fire poison would then become agitated and spread throughout his body, unable to be suppressed.

But doing so wouldn't kill Fan Jie, it would only greatly damage his cultivation.

It's not fun if he doesn't die.

He wouldn't take action until he was absolutely certain!

This was Li An's principle, so he had to wait.

He was already an experienced hunter.

As for Zhang Susu coming to him, he assumed she wouldn't dare to let Fan Jie know.

And even if Fan Jie found out, he probably wouldn't care. Li An was just treating it as a skin disease, and he hadn't noticed anything threatening.

Li An took out his brush and talisman paper.

He had eleven talisman papers left and was planning to modify them into Spirit Gathering Talismans.

After all, at this stage, Fire Flame Talismans, Cold Wind Talismans, and Earth Shield Talismans couldn't be shown to others!

It didn't make sense for a beginner to be able to create such high-quality talismans.

You can only make money using Spirit Gathering talismans.

However, after making three high-quality talismans, Li An found it easy to make Spirit Gathering talismans. Out of eleven pieces of talisman paper, nine were successful.

"I bought a hundred pieces of talisman paper and made nine Spirit Gathering talismans... It seems reasonable to outsiders."

Li An was quite satisfied.

"But this talisman pen is about to run out..."

Immediately, he became worried. A new talisman pen would cost five or six spirit stones.

This was the lowest-grade talisman pen. If he could draw a high-grade talisman pen of the first rank, it would cost at least dozens of spirit stones to buy!

In addition, he had to spend money on talisman paper. The next time he went to the trading market, he would need to prepare at least eight or nine spirit stones.

Selling all nine Spirit Gathering talismans would only earn him three spirit stones.

The gap was too big!

The main problem was that his high-quality talismans were not presentable at the moment. Otherwise, he wouldn't have this trouble.

Li An couldn't help but sigh again. The cost of being a talisman master was really high.

Most people couldn't afford it.

...

After finishing the talismans, it was already late at night.

Li An quietly left the room and, taking advantage of Fan Jie's absence, followed a small path to the mountainside.

There were some low-level restrictions here.

They were not much better than the ones guarding the spirit field.

Although he couldn't use his divine sense to investigate, thanks to the enhancement of his perception from the Super Sensing Technique, Li An had excellent eyesight. It didn't take long for him to find two flaws.

—The Lingzhi Mountain was not small, and these low-level restrictions also had gaps in their coverage.

Crossing the restrictions on the mountainside and approaching the mountaintop, he smelled a strong medicinal fragrance!

Li An proceeded cautiously, taking off his shoes and walking in socks. With each step, he carefully examined the ground to ensure that he wouldn't leave footprints or step on any traps like iron thorns.

Before long, he finally reached a rock not far from Fan Jie's residence.

Looking from here, he saw moonlight shining down on a small spirit medicine field in front of Fan Jie's residence. Many fiery red vines grew densely there!

On these fiery red vines, there were faintly growing several crystal-like red fruits.

"Fire Spirit Fruits!"

Li An was somewhat surprised. Fire Spirit Fruits were second-rank spirit fruits.

Moreover, this medicine could also be used as one of the raw materials for Foundation Building Pills!

How could Fan Jie have something like this?

"It's not completely mature yet, currently it can only be considered a first-rank spirit medicine."

Li An had excellent eyesight. By observing the size of the Fire Spirit Fruits, he deduced their current state.

After thinking for a moment, he slowly retreated without touching these spirit medicines.

Not long after, he returned to his residence.

Huo Lingguo was certainly tempted, but if he were to take it now, Fan Jie would definitely notice, and the risk would be too high.

...

After a few days, Fan Jie finally returned and summoned three people.

"The sect has been restless lately, and the area around the spiritual plant mountain is not safe. We need to strengthen our defense!"

"Li An, Wang Zilin, the two of you come with me and place these bells in the mountains outside the spiritual field."

He took out a set of red ropes and ten silver bells from his storage bag.

These bells had been refined and would produce a loud sound as a warning when touched by spiritual creatures, and they could be heard up to ten miles away!

Li An was surprised. These spirit bells were at least a middle-grade first-tier magical tool. This set would cost at least several dozen spirit stones.

Fan Jie is quite wealthy!

He took the ropes and bells, and couldn't help but glance at Fan Jie, only to see a dim red light of accumulated fire poison in his eyes.

If it weren't for Li An's strong perception now, he wouldn't have noticed at all.

He must have found a way to temporarily suppress the fire poison, but just like Li An thought, he hadn't completely cleared it.

Fan Jie immediately led Li An and Zhang Zilin into the mountains, but he didn't dare to cross the mountain pass. Instead, he found a few places he considered important near the mountain pass and tied the spirit bells there, activating them.

"Hmm, this place is about a mile away from the spiritual plant mountain. I'll be able to react in time and escape when the time comes..."

He whispered, then glanced at Li An not far away, a hint of coldness flashing in his eyes.

...

To everyone's surprise, the next two months were calm and peaceful on the spiritual plant mountain.

Even the fierce beasts like leopards and lynxes that had appeared in the surrounding mountains suddenly disappeared.

It seemed like the crisis had been resolved.

But the more calm it was, the more cautious Li An became.

If large wild beasts continued to appear, he would actually feel more at ease.

But appearing and then suddenly disappearing... that was even more suspicious!

Having been born into a cultivation family in his previous life and reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he had seen countless deceitful schemes and conspiracies. This kind of calmness made him very uneasy.

The end of the month quickly arrived, and Li An left the spiritual plant mountain again and headed to the outer gate.

He first went to Yang Daoju and waited for a long time, but Xu Qiuhui didn't come out. He immediately went to the registration office at the entrance to inquire.

But he was told that Xu Qiuhui was not there and her whereabouts were unknown for the time being.

Li An frowned. There was nothing he could do but say that he wanted to find Mu Qingwan.

As a result, Mu Qingwan was also not there.

Li An turned and went to Zhengyi Residence. After registering, not long after, Wang Dazhu and Zhao Xianchuan came out. Both of them were wrapped in bandages, as if they were injured.

"Ange, I almost thought I wouldn't see you again!"

Wang Dazhu was somewhat excited and said, "It was too dangerous, really too dangerous!"

...

(End of this chapter)