Chapter 23: Arranged by Senior Brother

What a prodigal little junior sister!

She had actually used up eighty percent of the poison powder I prepared for her while fighting those shrimp demons whose combat power was similar to mortals...

That amount could have taken down a hundred thousand mortal armies!

Looking at the thirteen nearly empty chu wu fa qi placed before him, Li Changshou's forehead was covered with black lines, and he mumbled to himself, as if brewing a storm.

Lan Ling'e knelt on the cushion in front of him, with two tear marks at the corners of her eyes, trying to escape her senior brother's righteous punishment with a pitiful appearance.

Li Changshou's mouth twitched as he held up a pouch and asked:

“Did you go to kill the great demons of the East Sea?”

“This, Senior Brother said... to use this when encountering danger...

I almost got chopped by those shrimp soldiers, so I subconsciously threw it out!”

Li Changshou said with a dark face, “I remember, I prepared nine cans of this for you, right?”

“It happened many times that I almost got chopped...”

Lan Ling'e pouted, on the verge of tears, and explained aggrievedly: “Senior Brother, don't be angry. I know it takes a lot of effort for you to refine these things, and I didn't mean to waste them.”

Seeing his little junior sister like this, Li Changshou couldn't really get angry and just sighed: “Effort is a small matter, but the materials are hard to find.

Our Du Xian Men rarely has people refining du dan; these are all exchanged by me little by little with my monthly allowance.”

“Senior Brother, I considered this.”

Lan Ling'e blinked, gently patted the belt around her slender waist, and pulled out seven or eight simple chu wu fa qi.

“So I exchanged all the rewards I could get this time for poisonous herbs and poisons that can be found in the sect!

This wave is absolutely not a loss, and we can even make a lot of profit!”

Li Changshou was suddenly a bit amused and exasperated, gazing into Lan Ling'e's eyes that were like gems, and in the depths of her eyes, he saw a bit of evasion.

This little girl...

“Is there anything else you need to confess? Say it all at once, while I'm still in a good mood.”

Lan Ling'e took a breath, suddenly raised her hands, and bowed deeply, her forehead and palms touching the ground, her long hair falling on both sides of her head.

Kowtowing to admit fault!

She tightly closed her eyes and shouted in one breath:

“Senior Brother! Ling'e is sorry to you!

In the sect, there are two senior uncles who are interested in the poison powder you refined; they took several cans of the most powerful poison from me!

I really didn't know how to refuse, and the fact that your poisoning skills are so high has been inadvertently exposed by me!”

The room suddenly became so quiet that a pin could drop;

Lan Ling'e's shoulders trembled slightly.

She wasn't afraid of her senior brother scolding or beating her; in fact, she even wanted him to beat her to vent his anger.

Since she was taught by her senior brother, she understood his principles of conduct, so she was so nervous, worried that her senior brother would 'abandon' her in the future and draw a clear line with her.

Why is it so quiet...

Oh no, senior brother must be thoroughly disappointed in her!

Lan Ling'e, oh Lan Ling'e, how did you become so carried away when you went out, and couldn't help but show off on purpose, resulting in being targeted by the sect's seniors...

What kind of person is senior brother? Probably only she, as his junior sister, understands the most.

He can hide ninety percent of a hundred percent as a trump card, always keeps a low profile, and absolutely avoids any unnecessary karma;

The reason she can receive senior brother's care is purely because she is his only junior sister, with the same master; otherwise, senior brother wouldn't even glance at her!

Ling'e said with a crying voice: “Senior Brother, it's okay if you beat me, just don't ignore me from now on...

I know I was wrong, and I won't show off randomly again!”

Feeling a big hand reaching from the front, Lan Ling'e subconsciously closed her eyes tightly.

From the time she entered the sect until now, is she going to endure the first physical punishment, being beaten by senior brother?

Getting beaten is also a good thing; at least senior brother can punish her this way...

That hand that grasped her three thousand strands of green silk fell straight down, not slapping hard, but turned a corner and pinched her ear, shaking it left and right.

“Um, senior brother, be gentle... it hurts... my ear is about to fall off...”

“Don't use this tone; if master hears it, he might think I did something to you.”

Li Changshou released that delicate ear and said indifferently: “Get up; this isn't a big issue.”

Lan Ling'e instantly sat up straight, her graceful figure revealed in that bow and rise.

She looked at her senior brother in front of her puzzled and asked softly, “Senior brother, you're not hiding it anymore? Are you going to come clean with the sect?”

“What to come clean about? What's there to come clean about?”

Li Changshou was a bit amused and exasperated, “Do you think I don't know your personality?

Since I gave you those poison powders for self-defense, I had already thought about what kind of commotion you would cause; in fact, I deliberately let you expose them, and there are several other considerations in this.

Come back and sit down.

Among the two seniors who took the poison powder from you, is there Elder Wan Linjun from Dan Ding Peak?

This senior has a disability in his left leg, leans on a copper-skinned crutch, looks a bit cold, but when he speaks to people, he always puts on a stiff smile.”

Deliberately let her expose it?

Several considerations?

Lan Ling'e was stunned, “Senior brother, how did you know? Yes, there is this senior; aren't you just back tonight?

The first one to want the poison powder was Elder Ge who hosted the li lian assembly, and then the day before yesterday at noon, that old uncle with the crutch came, gave me a lot of medicinal herbs, and took those...

Senior brother!”

Lan Ling'e quickly realized, looking at Li Changshou's profound eyes, and gritted her teeth: “You planned it all!”

“Between senior brother and junior sister, what planning? It's well-intentioned protection; the more you know, the more psychological burden you'll have.”

Li Changshou calmly waved his hand and smiled: “The poison powders I gave you focus on the matching of various herbs and toxicology, without any high-difficulty refining techniques, so even if noticed, it's nothing.

The recipes are in the outer hall of the Dao Zang that disciples from all peaks can access, and the herbs can be found in the Bai Fan Hall.

Now, in the sect, or say in the Wu Bu Zhou's immortal sects, most people look down on poison, thinking it's an dishonorable method, and those skilled in poison often face exclusion and prejudice.

So, even if people find out that I can refine poison and I'm quite good at it, it won't attract much attention; instead, they'll think that a disciple with ordinary aptitude like me has taken the wrong path.”

Pausing his words, Li Changshou's mouth showed a meaningful smile.

“Moreover, among the poison powders I gave you, several types of strange poisons come from a du jing I copied in the Dao Zang Ge; the author of that du jing is exactly this Elder Wan Linjun.

He should be the senior in our Du Xian Men who has the deepest understanding of the way of poison.

If I can take this opportunity to form a good karma with this senior, in the future, I might get his guidance in refining poison.”

“Senior brother,” Lan Ling'e complained a bit unhappily, “Do you want to calculate even me!

If it's something like this, you could have just told me directly!

Even arranging your own gentle and lovely junior sister, it's simply... too much...”

Li Changshou glanced at her, “Don't change the subject; we're talking about you wasting the du dan.

In the end, I have to give you some lesson to make you remember.

Tomorrow, you'll be punished to go to the back mountain to chop wood and clear land, and you can't use any dao shu or fa li.”

“Chop wood is chop wood, what's so great about it,” Lan Ling'e lowered her eyebrows and answered obediently, but her pretty face was full of 'whatever' attitude.

She couldn't help but ask, “What are we clearing land for?”

“To build a dan fang for refining dan and poison.

This time, by borrowing your hand, let the sect's management know that I'm good at refining poison, so in the future, I can naturally tinker with these on our Xiao Qiong Peak without having to hide like playing hide-and-seek.”

After saying that, Li Changshou stood up, put away all the medicine pouches on the table, stretched, “Wait until I finish my midday meditation, then I'll go find a suitable place to build the dan fang.”

“Senior brother, you're clearly just being lazy yourself, how can you let such a delicate junior sister go chop wood!”

Lan Ling'e made a face at his back, complaining a bit unhappily.

“This is for you, delicate cultivator.”

Li Changshou, who had already walked to the door, suddenly thought of something, took out a jade box from his sleeve, and threw it to his junior sister.

“A gift?”

Lan Ling'e instantly forgot her earlier depression and happily hugged the jade box.

Just as she was about to open it, she seemed to think of something, used her fa li to hold the jade box in the air a meter away, and opened it remotely.

A faint fragrance came, and in the jade box, a six-petaled white flower lay quietly.

Oh, it's medicinal herbs; I thought it was jewelry or something.

Lan Ling'e just thought to complain, but Li Changshou had already left the room, leaving only his slightly tired voice in the array:

“Next time before bathing, put it in warm water; it can help expand your meridians, remove toxins, and nourish your skin, making it more radiant.

See you tomorrow.”

“Okay, thank you senior brother, see you tomorrow...”

Hu—

Lan Ling'e let out a long sigh of relief, slumped in the armchair, then smiled smugly.

Safely passed!

Senior brother still dotes on me; I thought for wasting so much poison powder, at least I'd be scolded badly, but it was just my ear twisted.

But in this li lian assembly matter, from beginning to end, it seems I was arranged by senior brother.

This does make me a bit unhappy; I always feel that senior brother doesn't trust me...

Forget it, that's just senior brother's personality.

He even burns the cut hair with true fire until not a trace is left, melts the fingernail clippings with poison, and even when I deliberately get drunk, he uses the kun xian suo to tie me to the bed and cover me with a blanket...

Uh, seems like I accidentally exposed something.

Ling'e's pretty face turned red; that time last year, it wasn't deliberate drunkenness!

...

Back to his thatched hut, Li Changshou returned to his bed to meditate, planning the layout of the dan fang in his heart.

Previously, he refined poison using a small yao ding he carried with him, which could no longer meet his needs; moreover, to refine the rong xian dan and even stronger poison pills, he needed a larger and better quality yao ding.

First, build the dan fang, then go to Bai Fan Hall to ask the familiar uncles and aunts.

A good yao ding is hard to come by, so it depends on luck;

It's best to find some discarded yao ding and try to salvage them, see if I can perform a miracle...

The matter of the dan fang, he had actually considered for thirty or forty years, but has been hesitant.

Ordinary is the best camouflage.

From the ge jue zhen fa covering their master and disciples' living area, to the zhen fa outside his and his junior sister's thatched huts, and even the mountains, waters, grasses, and trees of Xiao Qiong Peak, everything is ordinary, without any uniqueness.

But if he builds a dan fang, he will have to make various arrangements inside and outside the dan fang to prevent people from discovering his some 'little tricks' in refining dan and poison.

Li Changshou has understood from the beginning that when his cultivation is just starting, any deliberate disguise will not deceive those experts' observations, and instead will make these experts pay extra attention.

Being noticed by these experts may not lead to good things;

Not being noticed by them means that bad things beyond his control are less likely to happen—at least the probability is much smaller.

“The dan fang can't be too close to the residence, to avoid any toxic gas leakage...”

Li Changshou murmured softly, took out the chu wu fa qi specially used to hold books and jade slips from his embrace, and took out a thick stack of sheepskin paper.

On it were drawn various zhen fa tu and building structures, each with many traces of repeated modifications, and the oldest few sheepskins had very faint marks on them.