Longevity Begins With Zongmen Handyman

Chapter 57: Patiently Waiting

"The elemental soul beast is chasing Gu Hong, so it shouldn't return to the cave immediately."

"There is a risk, but it's not significant!"

Li An attached three high-quality first-grade swift runes to his body, turning into a blur in the forest.

After a quarter of an hour--

Li An rushed back into the cave and casually set up a formation.

When he was in Qingyang Fang Market, he bought an intermediate-level formation and many materials. Under his modification, this formation has been upgraded to an advanced level.

It is enough to deal with cultivators in the later stage of Qi Refining.

Then he quickly put the elemental soul beast's corpse into his storage bag. Just as he turned around, under the operation of his heightened senses technique, he already heard faint sounds coming from the corridor.

His worries had indeed come true.

His brows furrowed, and he immediately put the elemental soul beast's corpse back in its original place. His figure pressed against the wall, rapidly changing his appearance while holding his breath.

"Elemental soul beast!"

Yang Jian had already rushed in, impatiently wanting to collect the elemental soul beast's corpse.

Boom!

At this moment, there was a burst of energy around him, and the advanced formation had been activated.

At the same time, seven or eight cold rain runes exploded around him. His whole body stiffened, followed by the simultaneous eruption of seven or eight flame runes and earth sink runes. The dazzling attacks made it difficult for him to cope.

"No--"

He hurriedly shouted, his magic treasures bursting forth, barely blocking the radiance of the runes, but the power of the formation made it difficult for him to move.

In the darkness, a figure had already appeared. He held a long knife in his hand and slashed towards the dark figure. The dark figure had already added an umbrella in his hand, which suddenly opened, blocking his knife. At the same time, hundreds of poisonous needles burst out from the umbrella, hitting him with crackling sounds.

"Ah--"

Yang Jian let out a miserable scream, and the person had already abandoned the treasure umbrella. He struck with a palm, accompanied by a thunderous roar.

At the moment of severe injury, Yang Jian barely raised his hand and withstood Li An's continuous attacks, surprisingly remaining undefeated.

The gap in strength between the two sides was too great. Yang Jian was at the peak of Qi Refining, while Li An was only at the seventh level of Qi Refining. Even though Li An relied on the runes, formation, and magic treasures to injure Yang Jian, it was still difficult to kill him head-on.

After exchanging a few moves, Li An suddenly retreated and, at the same time, a new round of rune explosions began--

Flame runes, armor-piercing runes, and others emerged.

"How is this possible?!"

Yang Jian's pupils contracted. The opponent only had the strength of the Qi Refining stage. How could he activate so many runes in such a short time?

It should be noted that using runes requires the consumption of mental power. Generally, a runemaster can only use three to five runes in a short period of time.

But this person in front of him had used dozens of them!?

He desperately tried to resist but suddenly spewed out a mouthful of blood, which was already tinged with a deep blue color!

He was poisoned!

"Poison needles... Does he also have poison on his hands?"

He was on the verge of collapse. Was he facing a devil?

And the rune explosions had already descended. He let out another miserable scream, his body covered in blood and wounds, and even his protective magic treasures had cracked.

And he instinctively lowered his head, only to see a sharp dagger inserted into his chest.

"You--"

His heart was filled with unwillingness, but he fell straight down.

Li An forcibly held on, forcefully releasing two more flame runes, burning Yang Jian's body, and then picked up the elemental soul beast's corpse from the ground, running madly towards the outside.

"Not good, it's too late--"

At the cave entrance, there was already a slight tremor.

Had the elemental soul beast returned?

Li An remained calm, directly embedding his body into a deep groove in the corridor and burying himself with many broken stones.

Previously, Gu Hong had triggered the formation, causing the cave to collapse, resulting in many uneven pits and holes.

He quickly operated the life-preserving immortal forging technique, completely concealing his aura, motionless. At the same time, he attached a soul-suppressing rune to his head to protect himself.

He heard the sound of the Primordial Soul Beast returning to the hall, only to find that the corpse of the male beast had disappeared, and the female beast let out an angry roar.

This roar contained a tremendous impact on the soul, but Li An remained motionless.

The female beast roared wildly in the hall, crashing into the cave walls, and the sound of water echoed madly.

Li An also felt waves of spiritual scanning. Obviously, the female beast was searching for the person who stole the Primordial Soul Beast.

But Li An's life-preserving Immortal Casting Technique made him seem like a stone or a tree root. Even the powerful spiritual consciousness of a second-order spirit beast couldn't detect him.

Three full days passed before the Primordial Soul Beast finally quieted down, only occasionally emitting a mournful and inexplicable low roar.

The Primordial Soul Beast accepted reality.

The soul-suppressing talisman on Li An's forehead had already lost its effect, but he remained as still as a rock, maintaining his composure.

And so, in the blink of an eye, a month had passed!

During this month, Li An neither ate nor drank, and even his breathing was suppressed to an extremely slow state. He had become emaciated.

But he finally saw hope - the Primordial Soul Beast did not stay indoors. Every moonlit night, it would go out. Li An guessed that it was going out to absorb moonlight for cultivation. Moonlight was also effective for cultivating spiritual consciousness.

In the second month, while the Primordial Soul Beast was out, he finally began to take action.

He didn't rush out of the cave all at once.

Because he guessed that the Primordial Soul Beast would never go too far, it would stay nearby, most likely on the top of the mountain peak where there was no obstruction and the moonlight was the best.

The risk of rushing out directly was too high.

So, each time, he only moved a few dozen meters towards the cave entrance, then found a hiding place in the cave's grooves and other places.

A month passed, and he finally reached a position tens of meters away from the cave entrance.

Li An waited for another half a month.

He waited until the heat from outside seeped in, indicating that it was a scorching day. Only then did Li An ignite his hope of escape.

The Primordial Soul Beast didn't like the scorching sun!

This was what he observed.

Until noon, when the heat reached its peak, Li An guessed that the Primordial Soul Beast should be taking a nap. He took a restorative pill, circulated his spiritual energy a few times, and then suddenly leaped out, with a swift-running talisman attached to his body, rushing out of the cave entrance.

The movement also caught the attention of the Primordial Soul Beast deep in the cave, but it didn't chase after him.

Firstly, Li An concealed his life aura, so it didn't see him as the one who killed its mate and didn't hold any grudges.

Secondly, the distance was too far, and there was not much point in chasing after him.

Li An successfully escaped!

He rushed out of the mountain cave, with no pursuers behind him. Li An took deep breaths of fresh air and quickly left!

...

Ten days later.

In a certain forest on the outskirts of the Cloud Illusion Mountain Range.

"Senior Gu Hong, are you still here?"

Li An, ragged and covered in injuries, stumbled to this place.

This was the place he and Gu Hong had agreed upon - if they got separated in the Cloud Illusion Mountain Range and couldn't regroup, they would meet here after reaching safety.

But there was no response from Gu Hong around.

Li An used his super-sensing technique to sense the traces of people around. Obviously, Gu Hong should still be here, but she had temporarily left.

Li An found a safe spot under a large tree and sat down. Exhaustion washed over him, and he fell into a deep sleep.

...

"Li An, Li An!"

He didn't know how long had passed when he heard Gu Hong's voice, full of surprise and urgency. Li An struggled to open his eyes and saw Gu Hong's concerned face.

There seemed to be a hint of tears in her eyes. Seeing Li An wake up, she couldn't help but hug him.

"I thought, I thought I would never see you again!"

...

(End of this chapter)