Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 25: Chance Encounter by the Lake

"Qingxue's injuries are too severe... We need to find a place to hide and treat her," Cao Zhirou anxiously spoke.

They quickly left with Tan Qingxue.

"Roar—"

At this moment, from the direction of the valley, came the deafening roar of the Black Needle Giant Ape, shaking the mountains.

It's come out again!

"Quick, run!"

Jiang You's legs went weak, and he hurriedly spoke.

...

At the mouth of the valley.

Li An, who had been waiting like a withered tree, immediately put on three new Intermediate Rank Swift Travel Talismans after the Black Needle Giant Ape rushed out of the valley, and rushed in.

His Super Sensory Technique was pushed to the limit, like an agile monkey, deftly avoiding the feces on the ground, and in an instant, he saw the cave ahead.

In front of the cave, two disciples' bodies leaned against the stone wall, their heads smashed to pieces.

Rushing into the cave, the scene was even more tragic, with broken limbs and flowing blood...

The strong smell of blood mixed with the scent of medicine.

Li An only glanced at the two glowing lotus plants, but did not pick them. Instead, he quickly searched and found his own storage bag on the body of a disciple named Qin Wei.

Grabbing the storage bag and checking it, there was only a pile of miscellaneous spirit grass, parasitic spirit vine fruit, some spirit stones, and low-grade First Rank talismans. The Tree Spirit Ganoderma was missing.

He remained calm and quickly checked the storage bags of the others. Finally, in the storage bag on Qingyuan's body, he found that Tree Spirit Ganoderma.

He wasn't greedy. After taking what belonged to him, he quickly uprooted one of the glowing lotus plants in the cave and put it in the storage bag.

Then he rushed out of the cave and left the valley.

The whole process took less than a moment.

After leaving this place, he headed directly towards the valley where he had pretended to fall.

...

On a certain mountain peak, the Black Needle Giant Ape smashed the pill bottle fiercely.

Then, it returned to the valley. When it discovered that one of the glowing lotus plants was missing from the cave, it let out a thunderous roar!

...

The sun set.

Li An crawled out of a dense vine on the slope of a cliff, his robe dirty and torn, and one leg broken.

Miserable beyond words, he crawled out of the bottom of the cliff on his hands.

"Help..."

"Help me..."

His weak and miserable voice echoed in the mountains.

It wasn't until the next morning that Li An, on the verge of death but with a strong will to survive, was discovered by other disciples who had come to seek opportunities in the sect.

When these disciples saw Li An's bloodied hands and the path he had crawled through, they couldn't help but be shocked!

It was too cruel!

...

Li An was sent back to the Symbol Hall that day.

His return immediately caused a stir.

After all, Li An had returned with Tan Qingxue and the others, but now he came back in such a miserable state... Did something major happen to Tan Qingxue and the others?

Li An forced himself to stay alert and informed Sun Lin of the situation.

He had gone to pick miscellaneous spirit herbs but accidentally fell, and without waiting for Tan Qingxue and the others to rescue him, he woke up and struggled to climb out of the cliff...

This was consistent with the accounts of the disciples who brought him back!

After Sun Lin finished asking, he didn't say anything, just told Li An to rest.

On the second day of Li An's return, Tan Qingxue and the other three also returned!

It turned out that due to their serious injuries, Cao Zhirou and Jiang You had to find a safe place to use elixirs to heal themselves before bringing Tan Qingxue back.

Tan Qingxue's injuries prompted Guo Xiao, who had been in seclusion, to show up and bring in experts from the Pill Refining Hall to treat her.

As for Cao Zhirou and Jiang You, they were quite surprised to hear about Li An's situation, but they neither visited Li An nor sent anything.

It was as if they had no relationship with Li An at all.

Li An couldn't ask for more.

...

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

During these three days, Wang Dazhu and Zhao Xianchuan came once after hearing the news, especially Zhao Xianchuan, who brought many healing medicines for Li An.

With the help of the medicines and spiritual stones, Li An could finally walk on the ground with great difficulty.

And today, the elder of the Enforcement Hall personally summoned Li An to the main hall of the Symbol Hall.

In the main hall of the Symbol Hall, the elder of the Enforcement Hall carefully asked about what happened in the Spirit Beast Mountain Range.

"Elder Shi, I suspect that I was ambushed by the Black Needle Giant Ape because someone tampered with it... The prime suspect is Qingyuan!"

Tan Qingxue bit her lip lightly.

She wasn't stupid. After reviewing all the processes these days, she naturally could find the suspicious points.

After listening to Elder Shi's words, the elder of the Enforcement Hall sighed, "Indeed, they did tamper with it."

"But they are all dead now!"

"They used you as bait to lure away the Black Needle Giant Ape and tried to steal the Luminous Lotus. However, they were all killed in the Black Needle Giant Ape's lair. That Black Needle Giant Ape has now reached the second rank... It has been classified as one of the highly dangerous spirit beasts in the Spirit Beast Mountain Range, and the inner sect is organizing a hunt!"

Upon hearing these words, Tan Qingxue and the others were all stunned.

Already... dead?

"I will communicate with the Alchemy Hall about this matter and ensure that they provide you with compensation," Elder Shi said, then turned and left.

Obviously, since the person was already dead, there was no possibility of investigating any responsibility.

From this point on, this matter could only be left unresolved.

Of course, no one suspected Li An, and no one even suspected that there was a third person involved besides Tan Qingxue and Qingyuan.

After all, the breakthrough of the Black Needle Giant Ape proved that the Luminous Lotus had not been taken by anyone, and Qingyuan and the others did not lose anything from their storage bags...

Everything seemed so natural.

"Senior brothers and sisters, I will go back first..." Li An stood up, limping away.

"Li An," Tan Qingxue suddenly called out to him, with a hint of guilt in her eyes, and said, "I'm sorry."

Li An forced a smile and said, "It's nothing, Senior Sister Qingxue... Don't blame yourself. I didn't even expect to come back alive."

After speaking, Li An left desolately.

Watching his figure, Tan Qingxue could only sigh.

...

For the next two months, Li An didn't go anywhere and stayed in his residence to recuperate.

He couldn't even hand in all the talismans, so he had to deduct part of his monthly allowance.

This made Li An very distressed, but there was no way around it. It was obvious that he couldn't complete tasks normally in his current state of serious injury.

On this day of the third month, Li An could finally walk normally.

"In three more months, I will be able to reach the third level of Qi Refining!" He looked inwardly at the seed of life in his dantian, and the third leaf had completely unfolded.

In the blink of an eye, he had been in Xunyang Sect for almost six years.

Six years to reach the third level of Qi Refining was extremely fast for scattered cultivators who lacked resources, but for disciples of the sect, it was only considered average.

In fact, Li An's spiritual root was slightly better than the average low-grade Huang-ranked spiritual sense. It was an attributeless spiritual root. However, his cultivation speed was not as good as Zhao Xianchuan and Wang Dazhu mainly because the progress of the Life-Nurturing Immortal Casting Technique was too slow.

"A low-grade Huang-ranked spiritual root generally has a limit of reaching the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining. The further you progress, the slower the cultivation speed... From the early stage of Qi Refining to the middle stage of Qi Refining is a hurdle."

The spiritual root determines the limit!

Fortunately, the Life-Nurturing Immortal Casting Technique was slowly changing his spiritual root.

...

He left the Talisman Hall and made an appointment with Wang Dazhu and Zhao Xianchuan. This time, he specially bought a lot of good spirit wine and food. He set up a table in the pavilion next to the Moon Lake to entertain the two of them.

Since Li An became an official disciple, the relationship between the three of them has deepened. The grudges between Li An and Zhao Xianchuan have long disappeared.

"Brother Li, you have survived a great calamity, there must be good fortune ahead! Let's have a drink!"

Zhao Xianchuan spoke up, and the three of them raised their glasses.

"Ange, I have some good news to tell you. I have started learning alchemy!"

Wang Dazhu excitedly said, his skin has become darker but more radiant, and his blood and qi are stronger than Zhao Xianchuan and Li An. He has officially reached the fifth level of Qi Refining.

This person, who is the least scheming, has surpassed Li An and Zhao Xianchuan in cultivation.

"That's great!"

Li An took out twenty flame talismans and smiled, "It's worth celebrating!"

"Ange, I don't need so many talismans..."

"Not just for you, but also as a gift to our master."

Only then did Wang Dazhu foolishly accept them with a smile.

Zhao Xianchuan also presented a spiritual stone as a congratulatory gift.

"Brother Zhao, is there any important news from outside recently?" Li An took the initiative to ask. Among the three of them, Zhao Xianchuan has the widest range of information.

"There may be negotiations between the three major sects regarding the middle-grade spiritual mine."

Zhao Xianchuan cautiously said, "That's why it has been relatively peaceful in the past year or two... The three major forces have been fighting for many years and are tired. Moreover, it is said that there are other forces eyeing it, so the three major forces may jointly develop it."

"The demonic forces are rampant. Several notorious demonic cultivators have appeared, even causing trouble in the three major markets of Xuan Yang Sect..."

Li An couldn't help but nod. Now he has a lot of things in his hands, such as the second-grade ethereal lotus, the fire spirit fruit hidden in the Lingzhi Mountain, and the first-grade intermediate talismans...

These things cannot be sold within the Xuan Yang Sect. Sooner or later, he will have to go to the markets outside, so it's better to inquire in advance.

He learned a lot from Zhao Xianchuan.

"Mu Qingwan is going to officially become Dao companions with Chen Cheng."

As he spoke, Zhao Xianchuan suddenly said with a complicated expression, "Next month, they will hold a formal ceremony."

Obviously, Mu Qingwan has always been a knot in Zhao Xianchuan's heart.

Li An, on the other hand, was indifferent to this.

"Hmm? Isn't that Mu Qingwan?"

Wang Dazhu suddenly pointed to the lakeside in front, where Mu Qingwan and a young man were walking side by side.

The two of them were talking and laughing. Mu Qingwan was wearing a moon-white long dress, highlighting her graceful figure. Her long hair flowed like a waterfall, making her look like a fairy.

And the young man was also handsome and elegant. Li An had seen him before. He should be Chen Cheng, the inner disciple who had embarrassed Zhao Xianchuan.

Mu Qingwan also noticed the three of them in the pavilion and a hint of surprise flashed in her beautiful eyes. She immediately walked over.

"Dazhu, Li An, Zhao Xianchuan, why are you here? It's great, I was just about to find you."

Mu Qingwan smiled brightly, obviously very happy, while Chen Cheng appeared quite proud.

...

(End of this chapter)