Li An found a deserted place, and only moved under the cover of night after waiting until midnight, first arriving at the mountain stream, then sneaking into the Crocodile Pool, where he dug up the things he buried four years ago.

He casually killed two crocodiles and roasted them to eat.

He carefully inventoried and categorized the supplies.

First, his own items: Turtle Shell Shield, Soul-Calming Horn, Wind-Riding Shoes, a Tier Two Talisman Pen given by Xu Qiuhui at the time, and dozens of Tier Two Talisman Papers.

Then, his spoils, which mainly included:

Over 21,000 Spirit Stones, various basic supplies worth more than ten thousand.

The more high-end items were a Tier Two Lower Grade Frost Sword, two Second Grade Spirit Herbs, and one low-quality Foundation Establishment Pill.

Over twenty thousand Spirit Stones and high-end supplies were easy to carry, three medium-level storage bags were enough.

But there were too many other basic supplies, making it difficult to sell them in the future.

He pondered for a while, then set off for the "Four Sceneries Mountain" early the next morning.

The Four Sceneries Mountain Range was full of barren hills and wilderness, located in the neutral zone between the Divine Sword Sect and the Hundred Beasts Sect, with many bandit cultivators hiding amongst them.

And one of his puppets, Zhao Yi, who once impersonated "Li An" in Zhao Family Town, was hiding with a group here.

After spending three days, Li An finally confirmed Zhao Yi's location, and then spent another half month investigating the surrounding circumstances.

A month later, when Zhao Yi and his group were preparing to attack another bandit camp, Li An secretly assisted them, allowing them to capture it successfully and also threw a lot of basic supplies into this camp's storage.

After all, it would be inappropriate for Zhao Yi to inexplicably obtain so many supplies in the camp.

The risk had to be completely eliminated.

And by using this method, Li An could "wash clean" the batch of supplies given to Zhao Yi.

Moreover, throughout the entire process, Zhao Yi never met with Li An, nor did he know it was Li An's arrangement!

To him, it was merely a spare move.

Let Zhao Yi develop freely, if he ultimately succeeded, Li An could easily reap the benefits later on.

"What a pity, the Blood and Flesh Melting Furnace Skill has severe side effects..."

Li An couldn't help but sigh.

Over the years, he had learned more and more about the Blood and Flesh Melting Furnace Skill. Although this cultivation technique was aggressive, its side effects were also alarming.

The master's control over the flesh puppet is one-sided, but the existence of the flesh puppet can also affect the master's mind, increasing the risk of going mad, becoming more noticeable over time.

Li An had already noticed that over the past few years, a slight gray dust had formed in his Spirit Platform.

If it weren't for the connection between the Spirit Platform and the Life Seed, he would almost never have discovered it.

In the future when breaking through to the Core Formation stage, this kind of thing could cause great calamity!

Fortunately, he was able to use the power of the Life Seed to resolve the issue, with the speed of resolution roughly keeping pace with the speed of formation, keeping his Spirit Platform clean.

That is to say, he could only control the current two puppets.

Any more would be a loss rather than a gain!

Additionally, every time he "manipulated" a puppet, the speed of forming that gray substance would accelerate.

Therefore, one must control the quantity, and avoid using the puppets unless at critical moments.

As long as Li An did not actively activate it, the "Demon Seed" he left in the flesh puppet's Spirit Platform would remain dormant like a "virus" in hibernation, not showing any effect in ordinary days, with the puppet behaving as usual.

Having finished everything, Li An left straight away.

...

Half a month later.

Li An reappeared in front of Celestial Yang City.

This time, he appeared as a destitute middle-aged man with graying temples.

The inspection at the city entrance had been canceled two years prior, leaving only a Magical Artifact hanging at the city gate, supposedly able to reveal Demon Dao Qi.

Li An entered the city smoothly, lingered for a while, and then rented a residence at the end of "Anle Street".

Anle Street was very close to the "Tier Two Spirit Vein" area, but still belonged to the "civilian district", while the opposite "Wuyang Street" was much taller and more luxurious, truly belonging to the Tier Two Spirit Vein area.

Moreover, Wuyang Street was the territory of a large force—the Treasure Pavilion!

During his time in White Tiger City, Li An had dealings with a branch of the Treasure Pavilion, and over the past four years, he gradually learned more about the situation.

The Treasure Pavilion apparently had close ties with the imperial family of the Great Li Dynasty.

Moreover, the Treasure Pavilion was also a central hub for all kinds of rare resources.

This was Li An's goal!

Finding a way to enter the Treasure Pavilion would give him the best chance to access the rare resources he needed!

In reality, remaining a loose cultivator, cultivating quietly and persistently, and with the Life Nourishing Immortal Skill, there was a hope for Li An to form a Core with assistance from pills during breakthroughs.

But the Core formed this way would likely only be a "True Core".

Having lived a new life, Li An's goal was the Golden Core!

After all, becoming a Golden Core made the future pursuit of a Nascent Soul virtually assured.

The vision must be set on the long term!

And Li An knew well that to form a Golden Core, apart from the support of Spirit Root talent, some special resources were needed to lay a solid foundation.

The external manifestation of Core Formation is the solidification of Spirit Liquid, but fundamentally, it is the first embedding of the Great Dao in a cultivator's body!

If someone with a huge background was a heaven's favored child, they might consume Spirit Medicine containing the aura of the Great Dao even during the Foundation Establishment phase, making the formation of a Golden Core almost a certainty.

Li An did not dare to hope for such things, which were likely impossible to find throughout the entire Great Li Dynasty.

What he wanted was the "Dao Poison Medicine"!

The Dao Poison Medicine, as its name suggests, does not contain the aura of the Great Dao, but contains the poison of the Great Dao!

This kind of Spirit Medicine generally grows in places where Spiritual Qi is chaotic, and Earth Qi is turbid, so the Spiritual Qi is very abundant, while it is also tainted with the turbid Qi of the Great Dao, becoming highly toxic.

But Li An knew that the Great Dao was inherently chaotic, and among the myriad turbid Qi, it often contains a trace of the aura of the Great Dao, only that purification is nearly impossible.

Therefore, Dao Poison Medicine is generally used as a poison, and nobody can use it for cultivation.

If it wasn't for the miraculous detoxifying effects of Li An's "Life Seed", he wouldn't dare to covet such Spirit Medicine, and would most likely have to walk the True Core path.

...

And Dao Poison Medicine is, firstly, extremely rare, and secondly, it is very similar to ordinary poisonous Spirit Medicine, making it difficult to distinguish.

If he relied solely on himself to collect it, it would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack, purely leaving it to fate.

However, entering the Treasure Pavilion changes everything. Dao Poison Medicine typically has strong spiritual properties and is therefore often sent by herb gatherers to auction houses or spirit pharmacies as miraculous medicines.

And in Celestial Yang City, the largest such force is the Treasure Pavilion.

His target was the "Artifact Evaluators" inside the Treasure Pavilion!

Artifact Evaluators are responsible for identifying the various rare items delivered through various channels, having the broadest exposure, thus making it most convenient for him to search for Dao Poison Medicine.

But to become an Artifact Evaluator, there are only two pathways:

One is to be chosen and cultivated by the Treasure Pavilion from a young age. Usually, only extremely talented orphans can be selected as seeds, which is no longer possible for Li An.

The other is to receive a recommendation from a current Artifact Evaluator, and pass assessments, which is another route.

Li An chose the latter.

After years of inquiry, he roughly understood the situation of the Treasure Pavilion, which currently had ten Ordinary Artifact Evaluators, three Senior Artifact Evaluators, and one Chief Artifact Evaluator.

And among the ten Ordinary Artifact Evaluators, the oldest one — Song Mingzhang, lived right on Wuyang Street.

...

In the time that followed, Li An kept a low profile, making Tier Two Talismans using the Talisman Pen and Talisman Papers at hand, while carefully observing the situation.

In the blink of an eye, half a year flew by.

On this day, Li An arrived in front of the "Yun Dao Tea House" on Wuyang Street.

Entering Yun Dao Tea House, a waiter greeted him, and Li An found a quiet corner to sit down, not raising his head, "Bring two pots of refreshing Spirit Tea, the taste can be a bit bitter!"

He took out several books and buried himself in reading diligently.

...

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