Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 16: Landing Smoothly

This night was destined to be restless.

Li An stayed awake all night, using his heightened senses to the extreme. His ear pressed against the stone wall of the cave, capturing the sounds on the ground and constantly making judgments in his mind.

"At the initial stage of the first rank, there are the most spirit beasts, probably over a hundred. The mid-stage of the first rank comes next, with around fifty or sixty. As for the later stage, there are fewer, maybe twenty or thirty?"

Based on the sounds of the spirit beasts running and roaring, combined with his past experience, he made his deductions in his mind.

Of course, he couldn't sense the spirit beasts flying in the air.

However, airborne spirit beasts are generally difficult to control and tame. Even if they are tamed, they are considered treasures and are unlikely to be used in frontline charges. Therefore, they should not have a significant impact on the overall quantity.

"The Hundred Beasts Sect has been planning for so long, and this battle is directly aimed at the core area of the Xuan Yang Sect. There should be second rank spirit beasts appearing... and there might even be experts at the pill level participating!"

He whispered.

The Hundred Beasts Sect did not expect to wipe out or severely damage the Xuan Yang Sect with just one wave of spirit beasts.

But they could greatly restrain the power of the Xuan Yang Sect.

It seems that the competition for the so-called medium-grade spirit mine in that place has already become intense.

"This battle won't be finished in a short time. It will take at least a day for the sect to arrive here!"

Li An patiently continued to hide.

Along the way, one or two spirit beasts rushed past from beside the rubble, and the sound of their footsteps made him tense, but fortunately, they were not discovered.

...

Time passed bit by bit.

The faint sunlight that shot into the cave disappeared.

A day and a night had passed!

On the morning of the third day, Li An finally heard footsteps and the sound of people talking.

"There's a shack here, but it's been trampled to pieces. I didn't see your so-called servant friend."

A male voice came through.

Li An's ears twitched as he carefully identified the person.

"Even Fan Jie was killed. With his low cultivation level, he was probably eaten by some spirit beast... Qing Wan, there's no need to look anymore, right?"

There was some impatience in the man's voice.

Another clear and familiar sigh came, "Let's keep looking. We had a brief encounter, so it's only right to bury him and settle some of the karma on our cultivation path."

"Senior Brother Chen, you should rest. I'll look for him myself."

The male voice approached the female voice.

"What's wrong? Are you still angry? Qing Wan, I've already told you that this killing game is a secret of the sect. Although you knew about it in advance, how could you leak it because of a servant?"

"Your spiritual roots are excellent, and your future entry into the inner sect is almost certain. Don't let a mere servant affect your future."

"Alright, I'll continue looking with you. If we can't find him, then so be it. You've done enough for him."

The female voice fell silent for a long time, then softly responded with an "Mm."

Li An calmly listened to their conversation, his heart unaffected and he didn't go out.

Mu Qing Wan and that man soon passed through this area and headed towards the mountain pass.

"The others should be coming soon..."

Li An murmured, then took out a dark pill and swallowed it in one gulp.

The Miscellaneous Spirit Pill!

He bought three of them, giving two to Zhang Susu to poison Fan Jie.

The last one was left for himself. After all, if he bought the Miscellaneous Spirit Pill but didn't get poisoned himself, it would be suspicious.

So, he saved this pill for later, to be taken when he was about to meet people.

The crisis was not resolved yet, and taking it in advance would affect his combat power!

As the pill entered his body, a small amount of spiritual energy was absorbed by Li An, and at the same time, a trace of poison accumulated in his body.

At this moment, in his dantian, a green breath suddenly emanated from the green seed, and the poison actually dissipated slowly, as if it was being dissolved!

Li An was stunned for a moment, instantly filled with joy!

The breath of the seed can actually neutralize the poison?

This was the first time he discovered this effect!

However, he quickly suppressed the seed. After all, the poison couldn't be completely dissolved at the moment.

...

Shortly after.

"Elder Lu, the formation that steals spiritual energy is definitely not something Fan Jie could do. There should be other people behind him..."

A female voice came.

Li An's heart finally trembled.

Xu Qiuhui!

The person he had been waiting for had finally arrived!

"Fan Jie is dead, and there is no evidence for this matter... But Elder Lu, don't you find it suspicious that Duantang's Lu Zhoumei rushed over to Lingzhi Mountain as soon as possible?"

Xu Qiuhui continued.

"I understand what you mean, but this matter involves too many people. We must be cautious... Alright, the others will be here soon. Let's not mention this matter again."

Elder Lu's solemn voice sounded.

...

In the cave, Li An slowly injected a trace of spiritual power into Wang Zilin's body, then slowly fell asleep himself.

Wang Zilin gradually woke up and found himself and Li An in the cave. He couldn't help but be extremely shocked and shouted anxiously:

"Is anyone there? Help, help..."

...

The voice, weak already, traveled through the seven to eight-meter underground tunnel and reached the surface.

But at this moment, the two passing by, Elder Lu and Xu Qiuhui, both experts, caught it.

Their expressions changed, and they instantly landed at the source of the sound.

"Who is down there?"

Xu Qiuhui drew her sword and asked.

"Prince Lin, Li An... save us!"

The voice was intermittent.

Li An?

Xu Qiuhui was surprised and said, "A miscellaneous disciple from Lingzhi Mountain!"

Elder Lu said, "Pull them up!"

...

Not long after.

Prince Lin reappeared in the dense forest, excited to the point of tears. Under the questioning of Elder Lu and Xu Qiuhui, he recounted in detail what had happened that day.

Meanwhile, Li An remained unconscious, and Elder Lu fed him a pill.

"Falling into the underground tunnel, but escaping a calamity... it's a stroke of luck."

After hearing the account, Elder Lu couldn't help but sigh. Li An and Prince Lin were truly fortunate.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel puzzled.

"Why did Fan Jie target two insignificant miscellaneous disciples?"

Xu Qiuhui glanced at the unconscious Li An on the ground and said, "I know this person. He showed promise when he joined, but he injured his spiritual roots by practicing the Thunder Spirit Path. He became a miscellaneous disciple, but later, he accidentally consumed the Yuan Chun Grass, which repaired his spiritual roots. Moreover, he has some talent in talismans..."

"He probably wanted to kill Li An to prevent him from exposing what he had done on Lingzhi Mountain after becoming an official disciple."

Elder Lu nodded.

At this moment, Li An finally let out a painful groan and woke up.

"What happened? Where am I?"

He asked in confusion, seeing Xu Qiuhui and the others, and hurriedly tried to get up and bow.

"Don't move, your leg is broken."

Xu Qiuhui immediately stopped him.

"Greetings, two immortal elders!"

Li An could only sit on the ground, slightly bowing, while gently touching his injured leg, wincing in pain.

—His broken leg was caused by him crashing into the stone wall. He even deliberately rubbed his back against the clothes to leave many scars on his skin.

Then, Elder Lu asked Li An many questions, indirectly probing about stealing the spiritual energy formation and Fan Jie's illicit cultivation of spiritual herbs.

Li An's answers were the same as Prince Lin's. They had seen pests on ordinary days but hadn't noticed anything unusual, and Fan Jie hadn't asked them to go up the mountain.

"According to Prince Lin, you dealt with the pests?"

"Yes, I read in a medical book that the scent glands of the stinky rat wolf, camphor wood roots, and evil dove roots all have weak toxicity, so I tried using them to deal with the pests..."

Elder Lu nodded again and praised, "Using poison to eliminate pests is indeed reasonable. The one that worked was the evil dove root. You were lucky to have used the right medicine."

"Elder Lu,"

Suddenly, Xu Qiuhui said, "Weren't you worried earlier that after Fan Jie's death, no one would be responsible for Lingzhi Mountain?"

"Li An has good abilities and character. Why not let him take charge?"

Upon hearing this, Elder Lu smiled, "Having a miscellaneous disciple in charge of a branch is unprecedented... but in extraordinary times, we can't worry about that. It's settled then. Li An, right? From now on, you will temporarily be in charge of Lingzhi Mountain."

Li An was extremely excited upon hearing this. "Thank you, Immortal Xu, thank you, Elder Lu!"

Beside Li An, Prince Lin felt envious but not jealous.

Aside from Li An being stronger than him, he owed his survival this time to Li An. So, he felt grateful towards him.

"Elder Lu, we have cleared the area. The spiritual beasts have all retreated, and there are no further problems..."

At this moment, Mu Qingwan and the other person who had gone deep into the mountain returned.

Seeing Li An and Prince Lin, Mu Qingwan was surprised and delighted.

"Li An... you're still alive?"

The man in purple beside Mu Qingwan furrowed his brows slightly.

"Mu Elder, you're here too?"

Li An couldn't help but speak, filled with joy and humility.

Hearing his words, the man in purple finally relaxed his brows and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

...

The next day, the Lingzhi Mountain area was thoroughly searched by Xuan Yang Sect.

In addition to clearing out the remaining spiritual beasts, they also investigated clues related to Fan Jie's theft of spiritual energy and cultivation of illicit spiritual herbs.

After Fan Jie's death, these had become unsolved cases. Although Xu Qiuhui and the others suspected the person behind Fan Jie, they had no solid evidence and couldn't proceed further.

And so, it was left unresolved.

The sect unanimously believed that Fan Jie's death was the work of the Hundred Beasts Sect. The Fire Spirit Fruit and Fan Jie's storage bag were likely taken by members of the Hundred Beasts Sect.

No one suspected Li An. After all, during this period, Prince Lin's testimony confirmed that he had been unconscious in the underground tunnel.

Moreover, who could have imagined that Li An, at the Qi Refining Second Layer, could kill Fan Jie, who was at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer?

Li An landed smoothly!

...

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(End of this chapter)