Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 182: Yun Tiancheng is Sincere and Unyielding (Long Chapter)

Returning to Lingyun Mountain, Li An immediately inspected his surroundings. Everything was as before, and the sounds of intense battles continued to echo from deep within the mountains.

The great battle had not yet ended.

He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly cleared the battlefield. The storage bags and storage rings on the bodies of a late True Dan stage cultivator and an early True Dan stage cultivator were all taken off. After a quick scan, Li An discovered several marked items, but he didn't pay them any attention this time. He collected everything without discarding anything, taking it all in!

He was only worried that these two individuals might have extremely precious treasures on them. If that were the case, he would have to consider framing Yun Tiancheng. After all, if it became known that he had obtained some treasures, it might bring trouble.

However, although both individuals had many good things on them, they were all within the normal range for True Dan cultivators. So it was normal to take them all. After all, he had participated in this battle and had no spoils of war. Wouldn't that be even more strange? More attention-grabbing?

Moreover, in this great battle, there would definitely be many casualties. The two major factions of Bai Mountain and Jie Mountain were in opposition, causing injuries and deaths to both sides. With his gains, no one would pay extra attention to him.

However, Li An had carefully selected the items in the storage bags and storage rings of his dead puppet. Anything with a mark had been destroyed. After all, in his arranged plan, this dead puppet was supposed to chase after Yun Tiancheng, and if the items appeared on him, it would be a big flaw.

What made Li An somewhat regretful was that these two True Dan stage corpses could only go to waste. He could use demonic techniques to plunder the Yin Qi and fleshly power from the bodies. But in doing so, the bodies would be destroyed, and he would be exposed, so he had no choice but to leave them alone.

After collecting the spoils of war, Li An put away all the formations he had set up to avoid being discovered. He only left one set on Lingjing Peak!

In this way, he no longer made excessive concealment and stayed hidden on Lingjing Peak, quietly waiting...

...

Until the dawn of the second day, the great battle finally came to an end. Many cultivators fled from Lingyun Mountain, but none of them had any interaction with Li An.

Li An sensed the escape of these people and already guessed the outcome.

Bai Mountain Lord should have achieved a complete victory!

...

In the evening of the first day, someone finally arrived at this place.

"There was actually a late True Dan stage cultivator and an early True Dan stage cultivator who died here?"

The person who arrived was Zhou Libai and her husband. They were shocked as they looked at the traces and bodies on the battlefield.

Li An activated the Lingjing Peak formation and walked out, saying,

"Two Fellow Daoists, you have finally returned--"

Upon seeing that Li An was still alive, the two individuals were extremely surprised. They exchanged a glance and quickly landed on Lingjing Peak.

"Fellow Daoist Lin, what... what exactly happened?"

Zhou Libai asked, while also examining Li An.

Li An's aura was chaotic, his complexion somewhat pale. It seemed that he had suffered serious injuries.

"Last night, someone launched a surprise attack from Heiye Forest. At that time, I was in seclusion cultivating. Fortunately, Fellow Daoist Xiangyuntian discovered it in time and shouted, shaking the mountains..."

Li An began to recount.

According to his description, it was Xiangyuntian who discovered the enemy, and then the enemy sent three True Dan cultivators to attack Lingyun Mountain.

In a fierce battle, Li An huddled inside Lingjing Peak, relying on the third-level formation he had set up to protect himself.

As a result, Xiangyuntian went berserk, killing two people in a row, but he himself was also seriously injured. He was relentlessly pursued by another mid-stage True Dan cultivator and has since escaped, whereabouts unknown...

After listening, Zhou Libai and the others were stunned.

"Xiangyuntian is actually so powerful..."

Baji couldn't help but exclaim.

In fact, Xiangyuntian's combat power was indeed extraordinary. With his mid-stage True Dan cultivation, he was able to kill late-stage True Dan cultivators and severely injure mid-stage True Dan cultivators. It was truly remarkable.

The key was that Xiangyuntian, as a cultivator, was extremely poor, so he basically had no magic treasures, talismans, or other external items. He relied solely on his own sword.

"This person is truly poor and wicked..."

Zhou Libai also spoke, her beautiful eyes shifting as she looked at Li An. She said, "Fellow Daoist Lin, according to what you said, Xiangyuntian escaped in a hurry, and the other person was in hot pursuit. So, the storage rings and other items on these two corpses..."

They had already checked, and everything had been taken by someone.

Li An shook his head, "I don't know either. It's possible that in the chaos, Xiangyuntian took them away together--"

Zhou Libai inwardly cursed, already guessing that the items on these two True Dan cultivators had most likely been taken advantage of by Li An. For a moment, she couldn't help but feel jealous.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, what about the matter of the demonic transformation?"

Li An continued to ask.

"Don't mention it!"

Zhou Libai sighed, disappointment evident in her voice. "Jieshan's people attacked, and we had arranged an ambush. But there were still many people who rushed straight to the Demon Transformation Pool, causing chaos. In the midst of the chaos, the Demon Transformation Flower prepared for Prince Tailizard went missing."

"Prince Tailizard was also seriously injured. Now, the demonic transformation cannot proceed. Several experts proficient in treating spirit beasts are currently nursing Prince Tailizard, but it is said that in order to recover, he will probably need special spirit blood and spirit materials..."

This was exactly why she envied Li An so much.

She had gone to find Jiang Ribai and paid a great price, offering her body, just to enter the core of this grand plan and learn the whole story, and even participate in it.

If successful, the rewards will be very generous!

She will have the contribution to replace the C-grade spiritual vein, and she can even exchange one or two fourth-grade items from the mountain lord.

But the result...

Everything collapsed!

The mountain lord was furious, and the organizer of the entire plan, Jiang Ribai, was punished. Their couple was also implicated, and their contributions were deducted. They had no choice but to return to Lingyun Mountain.

On the other hand, Li An was originally in a desperate situation, but unexpectedly, he stood up for the madman Yun Tian and took advantage of the resources of two true pill cultivators...

The ending is quite frustrating!

Li An was also quite surprised after listening to it...

His previous prediction was that the mountain lord's side would most likely fall into a trap and pay a heavy price, while the white mountain lord would be victorious.

Although the ending resulted in heavy casualties on the mountain lord's side, their goal was also achieved.

"No... "

Li An recalled the memory of his "dead puppet"!

The mid-stage puppet he refined and assimilated was named Wang Zhongxian. At that time, Li An specifically searched for two pieces of information.

One was about Wang Zhongxian and others' plan for this ambush.

The second was about the news of the fourth-grade symbol master on the mountain lord's side. After all, Li An had already inquired before that there was a fourth-grade symbol master on the mountain lord's side. If the other party participated in this battle, Li An might be able to take advantage of the situation and kill him.

But according to Wang Zhongxian's memory, that symbol master seemed to have been affected by the "Soul Devouring" and had closed up for many years, not participating in this battle.

However, the first point, Wang Zhongxian and others were accurately aware of the location of the Demon Transformation Pool...

This doesn't make sense!

After all, if the white mountain lord only wanted to lure the mountain lord's people over, they definitely wouldn't reveal the true location of the Demon Transformation Pool to the mountain lord. They would either hide it or mislead them.

Why did Wang Zhongxian and others know the real and accurate location?

If not, the Demon Transformation Pool would not have been affected, and the transformation of the Demon Lizard would most likely have been successful.

"Could there be a mole?!"

Li An's heart moved.

A mole leaked the real information to the mountain lord...

This is very possible.

But it cannot be confirmed.

"Brother Lin, we will take our leave—"

The two of them left and returned to Lingdong Peak.

...

The next day, Jiang Ribai personally came to Lingyun Mountain to investigate the matter.

After all, one of the reasons for this failure was that the enemy was discovered on the Blackleaf Forest side, causing them to advance at full speed and head straight for the Demon Transformation Pool. Many of their ambush tactics were not used, and the ambush turned into a skirmish.

According to what was said yesterday, Li An reported everything one by one.

Jiang Ribai followed the investigation and finally found traces of the battle in a forest not far from Tianya City.

Sure enough, it was Yun Tian and the mid-stage true pill cultivator.

This proved that what Li An said was true.

"Yun Tian... you fucking ruined my big plan!"

Jiang Ribai ran in the direction Yun Tian was fleeing, full of hatred, but there was nothing he could do.

Yun Tian would most likely never return to the Tianya Mountain Range after fleeing like this. Even if he wanted to find him, he wouldn't know where to look...

...

After Jiang Ribai's investigation, Li An finally relaxed.

Carefully recalling, there should be no loopholes.

In the cave, Li An opened the storage bag and storage ring obtained from this battle!

After counting, his gains this time were enormous!

In the storage ring of the late-stage true pill cultivator, Li An found two third-grade special spiritual herbs, containing the aura of Taiyin!

There was also a fourth-grade spiritual herb—the Profound Yin Spirit Grass!

This is one of the ingredients for the "Infant Transformation Pill"!

This made Li An extremely excited. These three things were extremely valuable, especially the Profound Yin Spirit Grass, which belonged to the Nascent Soul level resources. You couldn't buy it even if you wanted to!

In addition:

There were a total of eleven third-grade spiritual herbs.

Five third-grade magic weapons, including two defensive ones.

Seven pieces of third-grade refining materials, including four different types of metals.

Several pills of third-grade elixirs, including five Rejuvenation Pills, seven Cleansing Pills, and five Purple Mansion Pills, which can be used to improve the cultivation speed of the Foundation Establishment realm.

In addition, there were more than thirty third-grade talismans.

A total of over ninety thousand medium-grade spirit stones and over forty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

There are also some miscellaneous resources.

Li An was quite happy. This harvest would allow him to cultivate without worries for many years.

He couldn't help but think of Xiang Yuntian. With his strength, he could kill even those in the late True Pill stage. As a robber cultivator, killing and plundering, how rich could he be? How could he have fallen to the point where he couldn't even afford a Clear Evil Pill...

This kind of person was probably educated too well, still holding on in this dangerous world.

But they were likely to have a short life.

If it weren't for Li An, he wouldn't have survived.

Li An was ready to continue his seclusion.

"Fellow Daoist Lin--"

Outside, Zhou Libai's voice rang out again.

Li An walked out.

Zhou Libai smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Lin, the mountain master has issued a mission to attack and conquer the side of Jieshan master. My husband and I are preparing to go. Would you like to join us?"

Upon hearing this, Li An quickly refused.

"My injuries haven't healed yet. If I go now, I'm afraid I'll only be a burden to everyone. I won't participate in this matter."

Joke, now they want resources, they want spiritual veins, and they want to go out and fight... They must be crazy.

They value their lives too much.

In fact, Li An could understand Zhou Libai and the others. Unless they were alchemists, no one could always have access to fourth-grade spiritual veins without making contributions. Without contributions, their future would be bleak.

But it was different for Li An.

He had no demands!

As long as he could stay within the fourth-grade spiritual veins and not be expelled, that was enough.

"Fellow Daoist Lin, the rewards this time are very generous..." Zhou Libai wanted to say more.

But Li An resolutely shook his head, "Thank you, Fellow Daoist, but I have decided not to go."

After Zhou Libai and her husband left.

Li An also pondered the situation.

The main reason for Bai Shan's attack on Jieshan was obviously to seek revenge for the failure of the transformation of the Too Lizard Demon.

If he could avoid participating in the struggles between these big shots, he would.

Just live quietly and cultivate slowly.

But there was one thing that still worried him.

Jiang Ribai!

This person might have noticed some clues about the Azure Flame Divine Sparrow back then.

Now he was busy and had no time to spare. Would there be any hidden dangers in the future?

It would be best to find an opportunity to kill him.

"Too Lizard is injured..."

A plan slowly formed in Li An's mind.

Taking advantage of the absence of people on Lingyun Mountain, he sneaked into a nearby valley.

This place was called "Hundred Flowers Valley," where various flowers grew abundantly and never withered throughout the year. However, their spiritual nature was not very strong, and they emitted a strong evil aura, making it a dangerous place.

Apart from the bees and butterflies that liked flowers, there were few spiritual beasts here.

After searching for a long time, he finally settled in front of a rose bush.

He stayed here for a long time, infusing many life auras into the soil at the roots of this rose bush.

It wouldn't take long for this ordinary rose bush to undergo a qualitative change...

Then, he carefully surveyed the surrounding geography and sensed the situation of the evil aura in this place.

A killing formation had taken shape in his mind.

But it still needed time.

Back at Lingjing Peak, he immediately began his seclusion.

He didn't refine and absorb the three spiritual medicines containing the aura of Taiyin. These things were strategic resources, and it would be convenient to exchange them for something in the future if needed.

Apart from his daily cultivation, the most urgent thing for him now was alchemy!

Only by quickly becoming a second-grade alchemist could he exchange pills for contribution points.

Currently, he had plenty of spiritual medicines in his hands, plus the ones he purchased from outside, so he wasn't lacking for now.

"The fire is not enough, refine it further, the control of divine sense is too heavy..."

As he refined pills, the voice of Shangguan Xiaoxiao casually echoed in his mind.

Li An's talent and spiritual roots were now far superior to before, and with the guidance of this demonic giant, his alchemy skills improved rapidly...

"You said that all the cultivation professions are external things and not worth mentioning? But you seem to be quite proficient in alchemy..." Li An couldn't help but speak up.

Shangguan Xiaoxiao pursed her lips, "I liked eating candy beans when I was a child. I treat alchemy as candy beans, is that not okay?"

Li An: "..."

This statement is somewhat hurtful. Just for the sake of refining sugar beans, she has become a fourth or fifth-grade alchemist? Maybe even higher?

Many alchemists in the world would probably be infuriated if they heard this statement.

...

In the blink of an eye, three months have passed.

Li An's alchemy skills have reached the pinnacle of the first grade, and first-grade pills are no longer a challenge for him.

Now, he can strive to become a second-grade alchemist!

It is also this month that the conflict between Bai Mountain Lord and Jie Mountain Lord finally comes to an end.

Bai Mountain Lord has sent people to attack Jie Mountain Lord multiple times, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.

It is said that it was only under the mediation of other mountain lords that both sides finally stopped.

However, there is one thing that surprises Li An. Bai Mountain Lord failed to obtain the demon-transforming flower from Jie Mountain Lord. Jie Mountain Lord claims that he did not possess the demon-transforming flower and compensated with something else.

It is widely believed that Jie Mountain Lord did this intentionally to prevent the demon transformation of the demon lizard, as the demon lizard's talent is too strong.

But Li An is wondering if there really is a third party benefiting from this situation.

"Lin Fellow Daoist, now it seems that you are wise..."

Zhou Libai has returned, but she is now alone. Her husband, Baji Jian, died on Jie Mountain Lord's side, and she visits Li An today.

"Zhou Fellow Daoist, please accept my condolences..."

Li An politely comforts her.

"Grief is useless."

There is not much sadness in Zhou Libai's eyes. Her gaze flickers, and although she is dressed appropriately and dignified, she exudes a subtle charm and fragrance. "Lin Fellow Daoist seems to be quite skilled in formations?"

She looks towards Lingjing Peak.

"Acquired from outside."

"By the way, Lin Fellow Daoist is a talisman master. Can you help me refine a few talismans?"

She makes a few simple requests, and Li An naturally agrees.

Zhou Libai leaves immediately and returns after a few days to collect the spirit talismans, giving Li An generous compensation.

In this way, Zhou Libai comes to see Li An continuously for half a month, either for casual conversation or to ask for his help. The two quickly become acquainted.

Li An has been living here for over a year, and his interaction with her has not exceeded the fifteen days since her husband's death.

Zhou Libai intentionally or unintentionally guides the conversation, and between their conversations, they become more familiar. She often jokes with Li An.

"Lin Fellow Daoist, you are also quite skilled in making tea..."

She raises her teacup and smiles slightly. "Can you teach me?"

"I am actually completely ignorant of tea ceremonies..."

"Then let's learn together. Perhaps we can broaden our horizons?" She smiles charmingly.

Li An just smiles.

He knows exactly what Zhou Libai is thinking.

Baji Jian is dead, but her butterfly still needs to be nurtured... so naturally, she needs to find a male cultivator.

At the moment, Li An may be the most suitable candidate.

Li An is not afraid of her butterfly, and she cannot harm him. On the contrary, Li An can easily refine her into a puppet and take everything from her.

But there is no need for that. She has a greater use for Li An!

"Brother Lin, we talked about it over a year ago. Can't you show me your spirit bird now that it's been so long?"

She stands up with a smile, walks behind Li An, and places her jade hand on his shoulder, slowly moving it down.

Li An removes her hand and stands up, saying, "Fellow Daoist, please restrain yourself."

Zhou Libai is slightly taken aback, her face showing some embarrassment. Li An is so oblivious to her charm and underestimates her?

"Lin is of low cultivation and has no romantic feelings. Moreover, your husband's body is not yet cold. If we were to act like this, wouldn't it be the same as those beasts?"

Li An speaks coldly.

He doesn't want Zhou Libai to continue to pester him, and besides, the next phase of the plan is about to be implemented, so it is necessary to distance himself from Zhou Libai.

Zhou Libai grits her teeth and stands in place, a surge of hatred and anger rising in her heart as she says,

"Fine, fine, fine! Lin An, you are something!"

After speaking, she turns around and leaves in a huff.

...

On the third day.

She brings back a male cultivator from somewhere without Li An's consent and lets him stay in Lingdong Peak.

That night, she seems to be very unrestrained, and her voice echoes throughout the mountain.

Li An uses formations to block the sound from the outside and silently says,

"Indeed a promiscuous woman, not deceiving the heavens and not deceiving me!"

...

(End of this chapter)