Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 28: Fourth Level of Qi Refining

The next day.

Early in the morning, Li An set off with Tan Qingxue. The sect arranged for the spirit beast, White Eagle, to pick them up, saving them the trouble of traveling.

White Eagle spread its wings and flew high, soaring out of the mountain gate with the sound of wind whistling in their ears.

Suddenly, Li An remembered six years ago when he walked step by step on the rugged mountain road and arrived at the Xuanyang Sect's mountain gate.

Now, leaving Xuanyang Sect, the scenery was different.

...

In the evening, Li An and Tan Qingxue finally saw a bustling market built between the mountains.

The market was built relying on a second-grade spiritual vein, bustling with activity. As they approached the outskirts of the market, which was ten miles away, they encountered many disciples of Xuanyang Sect patrolling around. Seeing that they were escorted by the White Eagle of Xuanyang Sect, they did not stop them and let them enter the market.

Li An couldn't help but be cautious. It seemed that what Xu Qiuhui said was not false. The security around the market was probably not that good.

However, the market was protected by a large array, so even if there were bandits, they wouldn't dare to enter. It was safe.

At the entrance of the market, Li An and Tan Qingxue got off the White Eagle and verified their identities at the entrance before entering the city.

The market was very lively, with a constant flow of cultivators.

The storefront of the Talisman Hall was located in the center of the second street of the market, with a good location and a high-end decoration. The plaque above the door was inscribed with four large characters: Xuanyang Talismans.

These four characters roughly announced to the world that this was the official store of Xuanyang Sect.

Tan Qingxue and Li An went to the door, and a young disciple of the Talisman Hall was boredly guarding the counter. When he saw that they were from Xuanyang Sect, he hurriedly approached them with enthusiasm.

"Senior Brother and Senior Sister, what brings you here? I am Wang Yun, a disciple of the Xuanyang branch of the Talisman Hall."

Tan Qingxue said, "We are here on behalf of the Talisman Hall to replace Master Li. Please inform him."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yun hurriedly ran inside.

After a while, an old talisman master with white hair tremblingly walked out, extremely excited. "The sect has finally shown me grace and allowed me to return... It's been sixty years since I left the Talisman Hall. This is great!"

He took Tan Qingxue and Li An for a tour inside the shop and told them all the matters needing attention.

Then, happily, he packed up and left overnight.

Inside the Talisman Hall, only Tan Qingxue, Li An, and Wang Yun, who was assisting them, remained.

The storefront was not large, with the front hall being the place for selling goods, and a small courtyard behind it for them to live in. Compared to the environment of the Talisman Hall, it was much worse, but it was still passable.

The operation mode of the talisman shop was not complicated. Every month, the sect would send a batch of goods, mainly talismans, talisman pens, talisman paper, and related materials. Li An and the others were mainly responsible for selling these goods.

The prices of these goods are fixed, and the income is regularly handed over to the sect. If the sales volume is high, there will be certain rewards; if the sales volume is insufficient, there will be deductions from the monthly quota.

- However, because the items from Xuan Yang Sect are generally in high demand, there is no worry about selling them.

In fact, Xuan Yang Sect does not rely on selling goods to make money; the main source of income in the market is rent.

Most of the shops in the market are rented by other cultivation forces in the surrounding area, and they need to pay a considerable amount of rent to Xuan Yang Sect every month. With just the rent, Xuan Yang Sect can earn a large amount of spirit stones every month.

The reason for opening shops is just to maintain the popularity of the market. After all, other cultivation forces and wandering cultivators can buy products produced by Xuan Yang Sect here, which adds a lot of attraction.

Li An roughly calculated that he can earn about four spirit stones in total every month here. He has to pay for his own expenses, which is much worse than the Symbol Hall, where even free symbol pens and paper are provided.

However, what makes him happy is that he can also refine talismans here and sell them on his own. This part of the income belongs to him and does not need to be handed over.

Soon, Tan Qingxue and Li An settled down and supported the daily operation of the shop.

After a brief period of depression, Tan Qingxue quickly regained her fighting spirit. As a first-grade high-quality symbol master, in the first month, she refined two first-grade high-quality talismans and ten first-grade medium-quality talismans, earning an additional thirty spirit stones in personal income!

Li An also quietly took out a lot of first-grade low-quality talismans in stock, mainly high-quality talismans such as Flame Talisman, Cold Wind Talisman, and Earth Shield Talisman, and sold them for more than twenty spirit stones.

Taking into account the cost, Li An can make a steady net profit of twenty spirit stones every month!

This speed greatly satisfied Li An.

This surprised Tan Qingxue a bit. Li An's efficiency in making talismans... was obviously much higher than when he was in the Symbol Hall!

However, when she remembered what Xu Qiuhui had said about Li An, she didn't show any surprise, remained silent, and even took the initiative to approach Li An twice to explain the key points of making first-grade intermediate-level talismans in detail.

Her enthusiasm and initiative surprised Li An.

Tan Qingxue seemed to become very sincere, even when he deliberately kept his distance, she still cared about him a lot, giving off a feeling of being warm-faced and cold-bottomed.

Li An didn't reject it too much or take the initiative, just letting things take their course.

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

The spirit talisman shop operated normally, and the business was even better than before.

After all, both Tan Qingxue and Li An can be said to be elites among symbol masters, and the talismans they made were very popular.

In order not to delay their own cultivation and Li An's, Tan Qingxue paid out of her own pocket and hired two young people who were familiar with the business to assist Wang Yun in selling and doing the manual work.

Li An and her stayed behind the scenes, focusing on making talismans and cultivating.

It was even more comfortable than when they were in the Symbol Hall.

Everything was just as Li An had expected.

...

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

On this day, Li An walked out of his residence with a look of joy on his face.

After three years, he finally broke through to the fourth level of Qi Refining!

Three years ago, he had already reached the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, but it took him another three years to cross this threshold.

After all, the first three levels of Qi Refining are considered the early stage, and the difficulty of cultivation completely changes after reaching the middle stage of Qi Refining.

Generally speaking, the cultivation limit for those with low-grade spiritual roots is around the sixth level of Qi Refining. Without any opportunities, they would never reach the later stage of Qi Refining.

"The range of the Super Perception Technique has expanded to three hundred meters..."

Li An murmured to himself as his cultivation level increased, the perception range of the Super Perception Technique also improved.

"The Iron Tree Technique has trained one-third of my body into silver flesh."

For the past three years, he had been purchasing silver sand in the market. Because of the abundant supply, he never ran out. His arms and chest had already been transformed into silver flesh.

He could withstand the attacks of mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators!

"After three years, aside from cultivation breakthroughs, purchasing silver sand, medicine, talisman paper, and brushes, I still have over three hundred spiritual stones..."

Li An took stock of his current "savings" and was quite pleased.

"I can also try to make a first-grade high-quality talisman!"

In three years, he had completely mastered the first-grade middle-quality talisman and could easily create them.

He still had over a hundred first-grade middle-quality talismans in his possession!

Before he mastered the production of first-grade high-quality talismans, he wouldn't let anyone know that he could refine first-grade middle-quality talismans.

Always leave himself a backup plan.

He took out the advanced brush that Xu Qiuhui had given him three years ago as a gift!

The advanced brush was made entirely of spiritual materials, with the main body made of snow spirit bamboo and the brush tip made of first-grade high-quality white crane fluff. It was extremely precious, costing over a hundred spiritual stones for a single brush!

For Li An, this was a significant gift.

Li An understood that Xu Qiuhui must have noticed something from the incident in the Spirit Beast Mountain Range and guessed something, which was why she gave him such a valuable gift. It had a sense of "entrusting him with a mission" to take care of Tan Qingxue.

Li An didn't mind. As long as it didn't jeopardize his core interests, he was willing to help. After all, it was worth building a good relationship with a future Foundation Building cultivator.

But if Tan Qingxue really did something foolish, he would still adhere to his principles: respect others' destinies.

The advanced brush felt light in his hand, difficult to grasp.

Among the goods sent by the Xuan Yang Sect for sale in the store, there were also high-grade talisman papers. Over the past three years, Li An occasionally bought one, and now he had accumulated fifty-two.

He spread out the snow-white talisman paper, held the feather-light brush, and gently inked it.

As soon as the brush tip touched the paper, the talisman was destroyed!

Making a first-grade high-quality talisman was too difficult.

Li An wasn't discouraged and continued to draw.

That night, Li An wasted over thirty pieces of talisman paper, with a success rate of zero.

Even with his strong mental power, he couldn't help but feel tired. He fell asleep.

The next day, he continued to refine talismans. But today, when he had only four pieces of talisman paper left, he finally completed the last stroke and succeeded in making one!

"A first-grade high-quality talisman, a Binding Talisman, is complete!"

Li An was extremely excited. On the snow-white talisman paper, there was a symbol of a chain, as if it contained the aura of the Great Dao.

The success rate was extremely low. Out of fifty-three pieces of talisman paper, only one was successful!

But this was already amazing. Crossing the gap from first-grade middle-quality to first-grade high-quality was difficult. Without exceptional talent, an ordinary talisman master would probably take more than ten years and spend a fortune in spiritual stones to achieve some success.

Li An was able to create one with just over fifty pieces of talisman paper, surpassing the success rate of Tan Qingxue when she was a beginner genius.

This was mainly due to his powerful mental power and his experience from his previous life.

"The quality is not too high. It may not be useful against cultivators at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Refining, but it can have an effect on those at the seventh level of Qi Refining. It has a high probability of true binding against those at the sixth level of Qi Refining and below!"

Li An whispered.

Now he could simultaneously control around twenty first-grade middle-quality talismans with his mental power.

Using the Binding Talisman to restrain someone, attacking with twenty first-grade middle-quality talismans at the same time, Qi Refining cultivators at the fifth or sixth level would definitely be killed if they didn't have any treasures to defend themselves.

Putting away the talismans, he began to practice the Water Arrow Technique!

Now, he could release thirty water arrows at once!

He also reached a control distance of one hundred meters with the Starlight Dagger.

For the next three months, Li An quietly purchased another hundred high-grade talismans from the store he managed!

On this day, three months later, Li An left the shop.

After more than three years in the market, he had basically figured out the situation around him and was ready to do what he needed to do.

Fence stolen goods!

...

(End of this chapter)