Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 189: Gentleness After a Brutal Beating (Long Chapter)

Within the Lingtai, Shangguan Xiaoxiao stared at Li An, her eyes filled with undisguised killing intent and hatred. She was furious, absolutely furious!

Whenever she regained a bit of her cultivation, she would make Li An pay an unimaginable price.

The esteemed princess of the Heavenly Demon Sect, once a high-ranking figure who shook the entire Spirit Realm...

Now, she was being humiliated by a mid-Gold Core cultivator...

"Don't look at me like that, or else I won't mind giving you another lesson," Li An's elemental spirit calmly spoke, "This time, I only hit you. If there's a next time, I will definitely refine you."

"Definitely!"

He had just used heavy-handed methods, even weakening Shangguan Xiaoxiao's elemental spirit power.

Because he truly had murderous intent.

For Li An, Shangguan Xiaoxiao had always been a potential threat. If it weren't for the need to guard against Shangguan Shengxian, he would never have shown mercy and directly killed Shangguan Xiaoxiao.

However, over the years, Shangguan Xiaoxiao had hardly caused any trouble. Coupled with recently teaching him alchemy and formations, Li An had subconsciously lowered his guard against her.

And that was how she took advantage of him.

If it weren't for Li An's unique life seed, which supported his soul and made him fundamentally different from ordinary people, he would truly be in danger this time.

Whether it was Shè Ānqí discovering his secret or Shangguan Xiaoxiao's strengthening elemental spirit... both could lead to his calamity.

Therefore, no matter what, he had to teach Shangguan Xiaoxiao a harsh lesson, make her remember, and let her understand that there was an uncrossable bottom line.

"Forgetful and ungrateful, repaying kindness with enmity..."

Shangguan Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth, "If I had known this day would come, I should have let Shangguan Shengxian possess you directly... you heartless creature!"

Li An fell silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke seriously, "Princess, I have not forgotten the favor you once did for me, but your intentions in saving me were not pure either."

"In the end, the princess and I were only using each other."

"Since it's mutual use, then there should be an attitude of mutual use. Li An can make a promise to the princess."

"If Princess Xiaoxiao treats me sincerely and wholeheartedly supports me, Li An will definitely help you in the future. I will kill your sister, restore the Demon Sect, and let you leave, reborn! If I break this oath, Li An will be plagued by inner demons and have no chance of reincarnation!"

"What does the princess think?"

Shangguan Xiaoxiao was momentarily stunned. She hadn't expected Li An to suddenly become so serious... he had never addressed her as "princess" with such solemnity before.

But then she sneered, "When is 'the future'? Li An, a vow without a time frame is like waste paper. Do you think such a low-level trick can deceive me?"

Li An pondered for a moment, "Then, how about ten thousand years?"

He said earnestly, "Given my cultivation speed, if I want to surpass Sister Ling, dominate the Spirit Realm, I'm afraid it won't take too short a time... But Li An truly has no intention of deceiving you."

After hearing Li An's words, a surge of anger in Shangguan Xiaoxiao's heart subsided subconsciously. She could only feel an indescribable sense of emotion, a deep despair...

Ten thousand years??

She knew that Li An was not joking, he was really serious...

But the more he was like this...

She felt more and more desperate!

"Kill me, kill me!"

She couldn't help it anymore, it would be better to just die.

Li An: "..."

"Just now, in a moment of desperation, I insulted the princess. I am truly sorry. Princess, please forgive me. The injury you suffered just now, I will treat it for you."

...

Li An sighed lightly.

Shangguan Xiaoxiao really gave him a headache.

It's a pity to kill her, after all, she has helped him a lot, resisting Shangguan Shengxian, passing on the alchemy formation to him, including this time with She Anqi, thanks to her being by his side.

But Shangguan Xiaoxiao has always coveted his body.

Although he knew that he was not a natural demon body, everything was due to fate, he couldn't explain all this to Shangguan Xiaoxiao.

And this time, he was really angry, he went a bit too far...

After fighting with Shangguan Xiaoxiao, he roughly understood the reason why she wanted the fourth-order Soul-breaking Grass...

It's not because she wanted to take advantage of Li An.

It's because she has been in Li An's spiritual platform for too long, without the nourishment of soul power, her elemental spirit is about to dissipate.

This little girl, she should have said it earlier, Li An would have helped her maintain it.

But she insisted on using this method to exchange.

It only added to Li An's anger and caused her own injuries.

Li An also roughly guessed... self-esteem, dignity.

Shangguan Xiaoxiao didn't want to ask him for anything voluntarily, she would rather coerce Li An, take the initiative, make Li An hate her, and not show any signs of being humble and begging.

...So after fighting her, Li An regretted it a bit, that's why he said those words on purpose.

In a few days, he would have to find a way to help her maintain it.

...

It's dawn.

Li An woke up and continued to make talismans.

She Anqi also came out, but in her eyes, there seemed to be a strange change when she looked at Li An.

"Fellow Daoist She, did you not sleep well?" Li An smiled faintly.

"No, everything is fine."

She Anqi took a deep breath and said, "Let's continue."

Li An continued to focus on refining.

At sunset.

"Fellow Daoist She, actually you don't need to wait here. After I finish refining, I can bring it to you. The miasma here is too heavy, not suitable for long-term stay..."

Li An smiled and spoke.

He felt that She Anqi should leave.

He had already tested her once.

Moreover, according to what Shangguan Xiaoxiao had said before, once she entered the dream, the experiences she gained would be as real as actual experiences. He had frightened her severely using the dream, so she should be afraid, right?

After all, thinking about She Anqi's behavior during the zombie siege, Li An couldn't help but want to laugh.

In reality, even if it was just those zombies, let alone facing death, She Anqi probably wouldn't be so out of control.

Precisely because, after entering the dream, she was actually her true self, the deepest part of her subconscious. Without the support of cultivation and treasures, and free from the various moral constraints of the real world, the side she showed was weak, not much different from an ordinary person.

But She Anqi pondered for a moment and said, "The talisman is not finished, how can Anqi leave? Tonight, Anqi will continue to protect Fellow Daoist. Fellow Daoist, please rest well."

Hearing this, Li An was surprised in his heart. This... she's still coming?

...

Nighttime.

"Do you still want to go..."

She Anqi hesitated.

She still felt terrified when she recalled yesterday's dream experience.

But she had endless curiosity in her heart...

She had never seen such a subconscious!

What exactly was in Lin An's deepest heart?

The collapse of the mortal city, especially the tears and desperate eyes...

She inexplicably wanted to understand.

And there was another important point.

After she escaped from Li An's dream, she found that her spiritual power had actually increased a bit...

As a soul seeker, her soul consciousness and spiritual power were stronger than ordinary cultivators, and they grew faster.

But after entering Li An's dream this time, this growth was too obvious!

Was this mainly because the other party's dream was so special?

She didn't know.

But in the end, she gritted her teeth and decided to enter again...

Not long after.

She woke up crying again.

She encountered a terrifying disaster like the end of the world, with all kinds of monsters and demons. She was as helpless as a weak chicken. When she finally escaped from the dream, she still saw Li An buried in destruction, his eyes filled with despair...

"This woman..."

Li An's heart became complicated. When will she give up?

"Come again, I'll make you watch horror movies every night!"

Li An gritted his teeth.

The terrifying dream he created was simply a horror movie. It should have a great deterrent effect on She Anqi's mind...

...

On the fifth day, Li An finally sent She Anqi away.

"Fellow Daoist Lin,"

When they were parting, She Anqi couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, "Did you have a very painful experience in your early years? Do you have unresolved issues in your heart?"

These past few days, she practically had nightmares every day...

She couldn't understand why a person's subconscious would be filled with various images of destruction and darkness, without a trace of hope.

Every time, it was Li An's desperate gaze, his destruction.

She had been thinking for a few days and vaguely understood. Li An was neither desireless nor firm in his Dao... most likely, his heart was dead, filled with despair!

His entire subconscious was shrouded in the shadow of destruction and despair, which was why it was like this...

But what kind of pain and shadow had he experienced to be so emotionally devastated?

Li An was stunned, then smiled brightly, "No, not at all."

"I have always lived well and happily."

Hearing these words, She Anqi inexplicably felt a pang in her heart. She felt that within Li An's words, there was a tremendous sadness...

"I'm sorry."

She suddenly said, then turned and left.

"Finally gone..." Li An let out a sigh of relief, then suddenly went down the mountain and found many ordinary spirit herbs in the nearby mountains and forests before returning to the Ling Sha Peak and quickly starting alchemy.

His current priority was to break through to become a third-grade alchemist!

After a while, Li An suddenly spoke to the Ling Platform, "Come out and get some fresh air, okay?"

He opened his own Ling Platform.

This was the first time in a hundred years that he was preparing to let Guan Xiaoxiao out.

Before this, he had always treated the Ling Platform as a prison.

In the Ling Platform, a ray of light flashed by, and in front of him, the figure of a frail girl had already appeared. In the faint light and shadow, she coldly crossed her arms and glanced around, saying, "Huh, letting the prisoner out for some fresh air, Director Li, how compassionate of you."

She had already noticed that Li An had set up a triple killing formation targeting the soul around him, and the Azure Flame Divine Sparrow was ready to strike at any moment, ready to attack her!

This was really despicable!

Li An's expression turned cold as he pointed to the alchemy furnace in front of him and said, "This pill in the furnace, I made it for you. Try it."

"Just a second-grade pill, not even third-grade, and you're trying to dismiss me?" Guan Xiaoxiao sneered.

"Who said this is a pill?" Li An opened the lid and took out a round pill, a hint of murderous intent flashed in his eyes as he said, "This is poison, I have already refined all the poison gas into it. You wanted me to refine you, right? In consideration of our hundred years of being together, I don't want to do it myself. Either take it and die, or from now on, completely serve me and hand over all the secrets of the Demon Sect!"

His words were full of threats.

Guan Xiaoxiao stared at Li An, gritted her silver teeth, and said, "Li, you can't..."

After speaking, she directly waved her hand, grabbed many pills, and then swallowed them all at once.

But as soon as these pills entered her mouth, she instantly froze.

The pills quickly split open, turning into tiny streams, replenishing her elemental spirit, making her elemental spirit become more solid, and the light of her elemental spirit became even stronger!

Moreover, the taste of these pills...

She didn't know what she was thinking, and looked at Li An in a daze, for a moment not knowing what to say.

"Not surprising for the princess of the Demon Sect," Li An clapped his hands and laughed, "Such courage, such determination, I admire you."

"With such courage, it's a real pity that you died. Princess, please return to my Lingtai Prison and continue to be imprisoned."

As he spoke, he secretly prepared to make a move.

The divine bird glanced sideways, ready to activate the formation at any moment.

Although he had precise control over the medicine he gave to Shangguan Xiaoxiao, ensuring that she wouldn't recover too strongly and only maintain her current state, he was still afraid that she would retaliate.

In just an instant, Shangguan Xiaoxiao had already fully recovered, seemingly seeing through his little actions. Under her long eyelashes, a hint of mockery flashed in her watery eyes. "If I wanted to make a move, do you really think you could kill me?"

After saying that, she turned into a beam of light and flew into Li An's Lingtai.

In the moment the Lingtai closed, Li An heard her last words:

"The candy beans you made are terrible. Don't waste medicinal ingredients in the future."

Finally, Li An relaxed and couldn't help but smile.

He had refined this furnace of pills precisely to replenish Shangguan Xiaoxiao's spiritual power, for which he had used some traces of life essence.

After all, he couldn't give Shangguan Xiaoxiao the Soul Forging Flower of the fourth rank to nourish her soul.

Firstly, the medicinal properties of the Soul Forging Flower of the fourth rank were too strong, and it was difficult to predict to what extent Shangguan Xiaoxiao would recover. If it exceeded Li An's control, he would be in danger.

Secondly, the Soul Forging Flower of the fourth rank was Li An's chance to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. How could he share it with others?

Of course, he had also concealed and altered the traces of life essence, making it impossible for the other party to detect.

In addition, he had collected some spiritual herbs such as sugar beets and sugarcane leaves from the surrounding mountains and fields, in order to extract some sweetness and make the pills taste sweet.

He remembered that she had said she liked to turn pills into candy beans when she was young... It could be considered a small gift from Li An. After all, it was important to ease the relationship by giving Shangguan Xiaoxiao a good beating.

Shangguan Xiaoxiao was still useful to him.

Next, Li An continued to refine pills crazily...

"What? Despair?"

In Lady She's cave, as she listened to her sister's description, Lady She looked puzzled.

"Yes, deep in his subconscious, there are only scenes of despair..." Shangguan Anqi's expression was slightly complicated. "Sister, I think he must have experienced some major changes, his heart is like ashes, so his subconscious is always in chaos, and he has fallen into a state of desolation..."

Lady She pondered. She understood her sister's abilities, so if her sister said that Lin An's heart was filled with despair, then it shouldn't be wrong...

But she still asked, "What about his bird? Did you get any feathers?"

"I forgot..." Shangguan Anqi replied.

Mainly because later on, she became obsessed with entering Li An's dreams every day...

"Sis, I'll find another opportunity to get close to him next time... I must figure it out!" Her eyes were filled with determination.

...

In the blink of an eye, six months had passed.

On this day, inside the Ling Sha Peak...

Li An was sweating profusely, staring intently at the alchemy furnace in front of him.

Gently, he opened the furnace lid...

A refreshing fragrance immediately filled the air, and inside the furnace were three pills...

Three Clear Sha Pills.

Three pills were successfully formed, with two normal pills and one secondary pill.

Today, Li An finally became a third-grade alchemist!

"Thank you," he said.

Being able to advance so quickly was largely thanks to Shangguan Xiaoxiao's guidance.

After the incident last time, she seemed to be more attentive and patient in guiding Li An.

Of course, Li An also made her a batch of "sugar beans" along the way, with extra sweetness.

Then, Li An got up and left for Tian Sha City.

Instead of entering the city directly, he circled outside Tian Sha City for a long time, constantly deducing based on the surrounding terrain.

Because, after becoming a third-grade alchemist, the bait he laid down should be able to catch the fish soon.

His target had always been the Fourth Order Symbol Master under Jie Shan's command.

The other party would definitely come to Li An and ask for help in refining.

But for the sake of safety, the other party would definitely propose to refine it in person to prevent Li An from tampering.

At this time, it was necessary to consider where to refine it.

Li An's cave? The other party would definitely not agree, and Li An would not go to the other party's territory either.

It could only be in a place unfamiliar to both parties, and this place should also have earth veins, as earth veins could to some extent improve the success rate of pill formation.

Tian Sha City was a possibility, as it had plenty of earth veins, but the news would also leak out, after all, the control of earth veins was in the hands of others... and Li An was also not convenient to set up there.

"There are three places outside Tian Sha City that have earth veins... Blue Moon Valley, Spirit Communication Lake, and Broken Dragon Mountain. These three places are relatively far from the territories of the major mountain masters, so they do not belong to any of them. In addition, the demonic energy is too heavy, so no one usually goes there."

"When the time comes, I can temporarily use the Anti-Demonic Array to block the demonic energy, which should be enough for alchemy... Although the cost of the Anti-Demonic Array is too high, the other party should accept this plan in order to safely obtain the Clear Soul Pill!"

Li An had a target in mind.

Immediately, he rushed to these three places, familiarizing himself with the terrain one by one, and then set up arrays in all three places!

After all, when bargaining, who knew which place the other party would choose? Being prepared for all of them was the most appropriate.

After completing all of this, he headed towards Tian Sha City.

...

News circulated in Tian Sha City.

It was said that the Yao Clan's army would officially arrive at the Tian Sha Mountain Range next month, and more information about the Yao Clan's army had also been revealed...

It seemed that the "Vermilion Bird" tribe was coming, and it was said that the Vermilion Bird was one of the four great Yao Kings.

Li An inquired about the intentions of the Vermilion Bird tribe, fearing that they would attack human cities.

After all, if that were the case, it would probably lead to a clash between the Yao Clan and Shangguan Shengxian, which would not be good.

"It's not an attack, but a retreat. I received some inside information. The Yao Clan is currently vying for the position of Yao Lord, and the Vermilion Bird tribe was defeated by the Azure Dragon tribe and suffered heavy losses, so they retreated to the vicinity of the Tian Sha Mountain Range to recuperate."

An old man sighed.

Everyone was in awe.

After the exchange of information, everyone officially began to exchange items.

"I still have three Clear Sha Pills. I want to exchange them for Clear Spirit Grass first!"

Li An continued to speak.

Since he came to this trading fair for the first time many years ago, he had often come back. Every time he came, he would bring some pills. Now, everyone knew that he was a third-grade alchemist who had been searching for the herbs to refine the Clear Soul Pill.

Some people had hinted at him before, and Li An's answer was that he had a friend who was affected by the Soul Devouring Qi, so he needed the Clear Soul Pill.

But no one had given him the herbs he wanted.

As he was about to leave...

"Fellow Daoist Mu Shi..."

At this moment, a middle-aged man suddenly caught up and called out to Li An.

"Fellow Daoist Lu Tong, is there something important?" Li An's heart stirred!

This Lu Tong was under Jie Shan's command. Several years ago, when Li An was looking for Clear Spirit Grass for the first time, he was here at this trading fair. During that time, Li An deliberately sold a top-grade Clear Soul Pill to him, and later, he had also tested Li An once, but did not give Li An the corresponding herbs.

Now he took the initiative to speak... Could it be that the bait had finally taken the bait?!

"Fellow Daoist, I know the whereabouts of the Clear Spirit Grass you want."

Lu Tong smiled faintly, "To be honest, Fellow Daoist, a friend of mine has this item..."

...

(End of this chapter)