A lone man and woman, sharing a room, the atmosphere was somewhat romantic.
Zhang Susu exuded an enchanting aura, her pretty face flushed, seemingly uncomfortable.
"Sister Susu, what do you need my help with? Maybe we should leave the door open..."
Li An didn't want to cause any misunderstandings.
"No, we can't open the door."
Zhang Susu seemed a bit anxious: "Don't worry, I've checked, no one is around."
"Li An, here's the thing, I've been feeling feverish lately, like there's a fire burning inside, and some parts of my body hurt... The main thing, the main thing is..."
She seemed to have some unspeakable concern.
"Are you sick?" Li An asked.
Zhang Susu hurriedly nodded: "Yes, I should be sick. You read medical books often, right? I wanted to ask if there's any herb that can cure this."
Li An smiled wryly: "Sister Susu, you're overestimating me. I only know some basics. You should ask the sect's physician for help."
"No, Fan Jie won't let me tell anyone. If he finds out, he'll kill me..."
A flash of fear crossed Zhang Susu's face: "I really have no other options, Li An, please help me! If you're willing to help, I'll do anything you want."
She was almost pleading, clearly at her wit's end.
Li An frowned slightly. You don't dare to ask others, so you come to me?
This would only bring trouble...
However, since Zhang Susu was already here and knew what she shouldn't, he could only say:
"Let me take a look then, Sister Susu. Can you roll up your sleeve?"
Zhang Susu hurriedly rolled up her sleeve, revealing her fair arm, disregarding any notions of decorum.
Li An examined it closely, seeing red patches distributed along her pale skin, following the blue veins. They seemed congested, and a gentle touch revealed a burning sensation.
"It's indeed fire poison."
Li An's heart was struck with alarm.
As soon as Zhang Susu entered, he felt something was amiss.
Based on Li An's past life experiences, this situation usually occurs when Zhang Susu took some fire attribute spirit medicine but failed to channel it properly, causing the fire poison to spread throughout via the bloodstream.
Moreover, to produce so much fire poison, she must have consumed at least a first-grade spirit medicine!
Spirit medicines of this grade are extremely precious, and a servant like Zhang Susu could never obtain them.
"Fan Jie!"
He was the only possibility.
Given Fan Jie was stealing spiritual qi and forbidding Li An and others from going up the mountain...
Fan Jie must have established a secret medicine field on the mountain, cultivating a certain fire attribute spirit medicine!
He dared not sell or refine the spirit medicine, so he consumed it directly?
The consequence, however, is that Fan Jie also accumulated a large amount of fire poison.
And Zhang Susu... was likely used by him as a detoxification tool.
"Li An, do you want to check my thigh... it's even scarier there."
Zhang Susu bit her lip, her face reddening further, as she prepared to take off her pants.
"That's unnecessary."
Li An hurriedly stopped her. Fire poison must be concentrated there, one could easily imagine the situation.
He thought for a moment, then said: "This should be a kind of skin disease, you can gather some blue lotus leaves and soak them in water to wipe it."
"Thank you, thank you, Li An!"
Zhang Susu was extremely grateful.
"Oh, Sister Susu,"
Li An said: "Those blue lotus leaves you found on your own, have nothing to do with me... I don't want any trouble."
Zhang Susu quickly nodded: "I understand, I won't say anything!"
...
After she left.
Li An began to ponder.
The fact that Fan Jie could discharge so much into Zhang Susu suggests he has even more accumulated in his own body.
He might have gone out these days to look for a solution.
But purging medicinal poison is no easy task, unless an Alchemist refined a Purifying Essence Pill for him to cleanse his meridians.
Does Fan Jie have such connections? That's questionable.
Finding a method to suppress it would already be impressive.
This gave Li An a thought.
If Fan Jie is already bearing fire poison, just using something with opposing toxicity would agitate it, causing the poison to spread immediately throughout his body, making it uncontrollable.
However, doing so won't kill Fan Jie, it would only severely damage his cultivation.
Killing him would be much more interesting.
Unless it's a sure thing, he won't act!
This was Li An's principle, so he had to wait a bit longer.
He was already a seasoned hunter.
As for the matter of Zhang Susu coming to him, he figured she wouldn't dare let Fan Jie know.
Moreover, even if Fan Jie knew, he likely wouldn't be concerned. Li An merely diagnosed it as a skin disease, nothing threatening to him.
Li An continued with his talisman pen and talisman paper.
Eleven talisman papers left, Li An planned to modify them into Spirit Gathering Talismans.
After all, at this stage, the Flame Talisman, Cold Wind Talisman, Earth Shield Talisman, can't be shown to others!
It's illogical for a novice to produce such fine talismans.
He could only make money with the Spirit Gathering Talisman.
However, after making the three premium talismans, crafting the Spirit Gathering Talisman was no longer difficult for him; out of eleven talisman papers, nine were successful.
"Bought a hundred sheets of talisman paper and made nine Spirit Gathering Talismans... From an outsider's perspective, that's quite reasonable."
Li An was quite satisfied.
"However, this talisman pen is almost worn out..."
Following that, he felt a bit troubled; a new talisman pen would cost five to six Spirit Stones.
This was still the lowest grade of talisman pen. To paint a premium talisman pen of Tier One Middle Grade, it would cost at least dozens of Spirit Stones!
Combined with the cost of talisman paper, the next trip to the trading market would require at least eight or nine Spirit Stones.
Even if he sells all nine Spirit Gathering Talismans, he'd only get three Spirit Stones.
The gap is too large!
The main issue was that his premium talismans couldn't be revealed, otherwise he wouldn't have this trouble.
Li An couldn't help but sigh again, being a Talisman Master wasn't cheap.
It's unaffordable for the average person.
...
And after finishing the talismans, it was already late at night.
Li An quietly slipped out of his room, taking advantage of Fan Jie's absence, he followed the path to the mountainside.
There were some low-level restrictions here.
They weren't much better than those guarding the Spirit Field.
Although there was no Divine Sense probing, thanks to the enhancement in perception from the Super Sensing Skill, Li An's eyesight was excellent, and before long, he had found two flaws.
——Spirit Plant Mountain was large, these low-level restrictions also had gaps.
Crossing over the restrictions at the mountainside towards the peak, he caught a whiff of a strong medicinal fragrance!
Li An cautiously slid off his shoes, advancing in his socks, carefully watching each step to ensure he didn't leave footprints or step on traps like iron thorns.
Before long, he finally reached a rock not far from Fan Jie's residence.
Looking out from there, the moonlight spilled over a small Spirit Medicine Field in front of Fan Jie's residence, where many fiery red vines grew densely!
On those fiery red vines, there were faintly a few fruit like red crystals.
"Fire Spirit Fruit!"
Li An was a bit surprised; the Fire Spirit Fruit was a Tier Two Spirit Fruit.
Moreover, this herb could also serve as an ingredient for the Foundation Establishment Pill!
How could Fan Jie possibly have such a thing?
"They're not fully mature yet, currently they can only be considered First Grade Spirit Medicine."
Li An's eyesight was excellent; by observing the Fire Spirit Fruits' size, he deduced the current state of the Fire Spirit Fruit.
He pondered for a moment, then slowly retreated without touching these Spirit Medicines.
Soon enough, he returned to his residence.
He was indeed tempted by the Fire Spirit Fruit, yet taking them now would surely be noticed by Fan Jie, the risk was too high.
...
A few days later, Fan Jie finally returned, gathering three people.
"The sect has been unsettled recently, the area around Spirit Plant Mountain is unsafe, we must strengthen the defenses!"
"Li An, Wang Zilin, you both come with me, take these bells to the woods outside the Spirit Field and set them up properly."
He took out a set of red ropes and ten silver bells from his storage bag.
These bells had been refined, creating a loud warning sound when struck by spiritual beings, projecting over a distance of ten miles!
Li An was surprised, these Spirit Bells belonged to Tier One Middle Grade Magical Artifacts, this set must have cost at least dozens of Spirit Stones.
Fan Jie, this guy, was quite wealthy!
He accepted the ropes and bells, inadvertently glancing at Fan Jie, noticing that the red glow accumulated from the fire poison in Fan Jie's eyes was dim.
If not for Li An's strong perception now, he wouldn't have noticed it at all.
It seemed Fan Jie had found some way to temporarily suppress the fire poison, but as Li An suspected, he hadn't cleared it completely.
Fan Jie immediately led Li An and Zhang Zilin into the woods, but he didn't dare to cross the mountain pass, instead, he found a few spots in front of it where he thought were important to place and activate the Spirit Bells.
"Hmm, this spot is a mile from Spirit Plant Mountain. When the time comes, I'll be able to react from a mile away, enough to escape..."
He murmured, then glanced coldly at Li An not far off.
...
Unexpectedly, the following two months at Spirit Plant Mountain were unusually calm.
Even the leopards, lynxes, and other beasts in the surrounding woods suddenly disappeared.
It seemed the crisis had been averted.
But the more this happened, the more alert Li An became.
If large beasts continued to appear, he would actually be more at ease.
But having them appear and suddenly disappear... seemed even stranger!
In his past life, he was born into a Cultivation Clan, grew to Core Formation, and had seen plenty of deceit and intrigue. Such tranquility made him very uneasy.
The end of the month came quickly, and Li An left Spirit Plant Mountain, heading for the outer sect.
He first went to Yangdao Residence and waited a long time, yet Xu Qiuhui didn't come out, so he immediately headed to the registration desk to inquire.
Only to learn that Xu Qiuhui wasn't there, whereabouts temporarily unknown.
Li An frowned, having no choice but to ask to find Mu Qingwan.
It turned out Mu Qingwan wasn't there either.
Li An turned and went to Zhengyi Residence, and after registering, soon enough, Wang Dazhu and Zhao Xian came out, both of them wrapped in bandages as if they were injured.
"Brother An, I almost didn't get to see you!"
Wang Dazhu was somewhat emotional, saying, "It was too dangerous, truly too dangerous!"
...