Chapter 56 Reaping Surprises

The other party arrived as promised, with the only difference being that three people showed up.

The elderly man still wore a disguised face, while the other two restored their original appearances upon entering the Li residence.

"Alchemist Li, this pill formula is my family's core secret, and this old man is truly somewhat uneasy, so I asked them to wait in the outer courtyard. They will not disturb your alchemy." The elderly man explained as soon as he stepped through the door.

Given the current chaotic situation, such behavior from the other party was quite normal. Many legitimate pill-seekers in the past had acted similarly.

Li Ji'an did not refuse, as this suited his intentions perfectly; otherwise, a time-consuming and energy-draining pursuit would have been unavoidable later.

Without delay, Li Ji'an led him directly to the pill-refining room in the inner courtyard.

As soon as they entered the inner courtyard, Li Ji'an activated the isolation array right in front of him.

"Alchemist Li's array is actually capable of blocking the divine sense detection of Foundation Establishment cultivators? Good, good, this makes this old man even more at ease." The elderly man looked up, sensing the effect of the array with a full smile on his face. He had originally planned to waste an isolation talisman when they made their move later, but now that expense was saved.

Watching his expression, Li Ji'an found it somewhat amusing.

The man was standing right beside him and even releasing his divine sense to sense the array.

"Boom!" Li Ji'an struck without a moment's hesitation.

A Tier 2 body cultivator delivering a close-range fatal blow.

Furthermore, the target was completely unprepared.

There could be no better opportunity than this.

"You..." It wasn't until the force of the fist was right upon him that the elderly man reacted violently.

If not for the instinctive self-defense mechanism of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he wouldn't even have been able to raise his protective barrier.

"Crack!" However, the autonomously activated protective barrier was weak after all. Even against the man's full-strength protective barrier, Li Ji'an could shatter it with three punches at such close range; at this moment, it shattered almost instantly upon contact.

"Puff~" The elderly man took the punch directly in his dantian, flying backward three zhang and spitting out a froth of blood.

Fortunately, the barrier had absorbed most of the fist's force, or else this single punch would have pierced straight through his dantian.

"You're actually plotting to murder for wealth..." The elderly man's dantian was shattered, and his inner spiritual power was rapidly dissipating.

He never imagined that the soft persimmon they had spent over a month selecting was actually a Tier 2 body cultivator. Nor could he imagine that this highly praised alchemist of impeccable character would be just like them, willing to kill for his pill formula.

"Whoosh~" Another blade of wind swept past, and the man's head rolled to the ground, his eyes wide with lingering grievance.

Only then did Li Ji'an finally relax his mind, as the natal fierce-halberd talisman and golden-bell talisman nurtured within his dantian rose and fell once more.

"He doesn't even have a natal magical artifact?" Li Ji'an had prepared several contingencies, yet the problem was resolved using the very method he had considered least reliable.

And this was a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Although the aura of his spiritual power was incomparable to that of the sect's true successor Jiang Yunzhou, it was still more than twice as strong as an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The gap between each minor realm in the Foundation Establishment stage was quite significant. Under normal circumstances, without external aid and relying solely on spiritual power combat, cross-realm victory was absolutely impossible.

What Li Ji'an hadn't expected this time was that the opponent was so careless as to get close enough to him.

Who could resist such an opportunity?

When he was receiving lessons on Jianghu experience at the Yan family clan hall back in the day, the clan elders had explicitly warned everyone that when traveling outside, one must always maintain a safe distance from unfamiliar cultivators, never be distracted, and keep their spiritual awareness vigilant at all times.

"So he had also nurtured a natal talisman." At this moment, the elderly man was completely dead, and a talisman drifted down from his dantian region.

A sweep of divine sense later, Li Ji'an shook his head; it was a Tier 2 lower-grade offensive talisman, though of rather poor quality—merely mid-grade—and judging by its condition, it had been nurtured for quite some years.

The natal talisman could not automatically protect its master; it simply bypassed the need for spiritual power and soul activation. Had this person nurtured a defensive magical artifact instead of a natal talisman, he could have lived a few moments longer.

Giving it no more thought, Li Ji'an cast his divine sense toward the front courtyard.

A man and a woman were still casually observing the layout of the front courtyard.

He then used the spiritual pet contract to sense Guagua.

He saw Guagua silently releasing soul-sealing powder underground right beneath the man and woman.

Soul-sealing powder was a poison that Li Ji'an had formulated over the past few years by constantly consulting Physician Bai and synthesizing the principles of poison classics occasionally revealed by him. It had the effect of sealing the spiritual power of early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Because of his profound foundation in alchemy regarding the medicinal properties of herbs, he possessed quite a bit of talent in the study of poisons over the years.

If not for the lack of samples and test subjects, he would have had the confidence to formulate a poison effective even against late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

And this time, it could be considered his first time testing the medicinal properties on actual people.

However, the hardest part about poisons in the cultivation world was how to release them silently and make the targets fall victim without realizing it.

After all, cultivators could hold their breath and isolate themselves from external influences.

Aside from poisoning magical artifacts, the difficulty of covert poisoning was extremely high.

The fortunate thing for Li Ji'an was that he had Guagua, a helper with exceptional stealth capabilities.

"Elder Sister-in-law, do you... Oh no, my spiritual power..." Not long after, when the man stood up, his expression suddenly changed as he realized something.

"Poisoned?" The woman reacted a moment later, instantly coming to realization.

Immediately afterward, a flash of green light flickered, flying out from her dantian region.

Following that, the green light bloomed, turning into a green halo that enveloped the two of them.

"They also have natal talismans?" Li Ji'an felt slightly surprised.

Moreover, she had actually nurtured a detoxification talisman.

"Swish~" Receiving the command, Guagua's tongue shot out like a bolt from underground.

It pierced right through the two cultivators who had just been detoxified but whose spiritual power had not yet fully recovered.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator stripped of their spiritual power had a physical body equivalent only to a Tier 1 lower-grade body cultivator; how could they possibly withstand an attack from Guagua, a Tier 2 demonic beast?

Soon, Guagua dragged the three corpses into the inner courtyard.

Looking at the three bodies with their eyes wide open in death, Li Ji'an shook his head slightly: "My spiritual power isn't weak; it's just because I've nurtured three natal talismans."

After stripping the three of their storage bags, he had Guagua swallow all three corpses in one gulp.

Having swallowed the three, Guagua headed straight for the small courtyard they had rented, where there was still a late Qi-condensation junior cultivator remaining.

While waiting, Li Ji'an inspected the three storage bags.

Upon this inspection, he instantly took a deep breath.

The storage bag of the leader actually contained nearly twenty thousand spirit stones.

There were dozens of mid- and high-grade magical artifacts of various kinds, with the highest grade being a fine-quality mountain-cleaving axe.

There was also a huge pile of miscellaneous pills of mixed quality.

"Huh? What is this..." Suddenly, a piece of animal skin caught Li Ji'an's attention.

The animal skin was old and tattered, heavily eroded by the passage of time, clearly just a broken fragment.

Yet on this fragmentary piece of animal skin, three large characters were exceptionally clear—Six Divine Condensation...

And right below these three characters were three medicinal herbs.

These were precisely the herbs the elderly man had reported to Li Ji'an back then.

"This person wasn't entirely deceiving me!" Li Ji'an properly stored away the tattered animal skin.

This gave him hope for the "Six Divine Condensing Origin Pill."

Suppressing the surging emotions in his heart, Li Ji'an proceeded to search the storage bags of the other two early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The contents of these two storage bags were sparse.

However, in the female cultivator's storage bag, Li Ji'an discovered an anomaly.

There were numerous talismans inside.

Along with quite a few talisman-making materials.

"She's actually a Tier 2 talisman master!"

Li Ji'an could not understand why a Tier 2 talisman master would resort to being a bandit cultivator.

At the very least, within the borders of Cangyun Prefecture, there wasn't even a single rogue Tier 2 talisman master.

Tier 2 talisman masters could craft strategic resources posing a threat to Foundation Establishment cultivators; virtually all Tier 2 talisman masters had been recruited into sects.

Furthermore, Tier 2 talisman materials within Cangyun Prefecture were heavily regulated and scarce, leaving ordinary talisman masters with few opportunities to practice.

In the nine years since he obtained the inheritance of Tier 2 talismans, Li Ji'an had acquired fewer than thirty talisman materials in total, many of which came from refining pills for others and through private transactions.

"It's also possible she cultivated herself into a Tier 2 talisman master relying on plunder."

"A talisman brush!"

Finally, Li Ji'an made a pleasant discovery inside a jade box: the talisman brush used by the female talisman master.

It was actually a Tier 2 mid-grade talisman brush.

It was a full major grade higher than the talisman brush Li Ji'an had been using over the years.

One had to admit, this haul brought Li Ji'an wave after wave of pleasant surprises.

"Acting like a soft persimmon doesn't seem like such a bad thing after all."

Before long, Guagua returned.

The storage bag of the late Qi-condensation cultivator contained only daily cultivation pills and nothing else.

After dealing with this entire group, Li Ji'an sent a message to Xiao Qiao, informing her that she could return.

Before the other party's arrival, Li Ji'an had sent Xiao Qiao to Duanmu Qin's mansion.

However, even before Xiao Qiao returned, news that could be considered a pleasant surprise for all rogue cultivators in the immortal city began to spread.

"In order to demonstrate its righteousness, the Biyun Sect has decided to put a portion of the rare resources excavated from the ruins up for auction, giving all cultivators within the prefecture an opportunity to compete fairly."