Volume 1, Chapter 53: A Letter from the Senior Brother

"Ah?"

Shi Ming was startled by these words, then quickly said, "Uncle Master, I'm not nervous. I just... I just wanted to inform you."

Li Hanzhou cast an unexpected glance at Shi Ming, whose face had unexpectedly turned quite red.

"Let's go, let's take a look."

Li Hanzhou and Shi Ming went to find Fairy Jueqing.

After these days of recuperation, Fairy Jueqing's injuries were mostly healed. Accompanied by a few junior sisters, she was now standing by the entrance waiting for Li Hanzhou.

Seeing Li Hanzhou arrive, Fairy Jueqing stepped forward and respectfully said, "Senior Li, I have troubled the Longevity Temple greatly these past few days. Now that my injuries are nearly healed, and our sect elders have arrived in White Cloud City, we are here to take our leave."

"You are too polite, Fairy," Li Hanzhou smiled. "I have been too busy recently and failed to show you proper hospitality. I hope you will not take offense."

"Not at all. Senior Li has taken wonderful care of us." Fairy Jueqing glanced at Shi Ming and continued, "Junior Brother Shi Ming's cooking is also exceptionally delicious. If there is an opportunity in the future, I hope I might still have the chance to taste his food."

At these words, Shi Ming's face turned even redder.

"If Fairy wishes to come, you are welcome at any time," Shi Ming said softly.

"Then we will take our leave." Fairy Jueqing and her companions departed from the Longevity Temple.

Li Hanzhou watched the retreating figure of Fairy Jueqing, then turned his gaze to Shi Ming beside him, and could not help letting out a soft sigh: "Little Shi Ming, do you fancy this Song Yitao?"

"Yes," Shi Ming did not deny it, merely nodding with a firm expression.

"What do you like about her?" Li Hanzhou asked with curiosity.

"She's pretty," Shi Ming replied without a moment's hesitation.

Hearing this, Li Hanzhou burst into laughter. Usually, Shi Ming just seemed overly honest, but the boy was certainly not stupid at all.

"Do you want to pursue her?" Li Hanzhou could not help asking again.

"I do," Shi Ming nodded.

"That will be difficult." Li Hanzhou patted Shi Ming's shoulder. "Winning this girl over will probably be harder than anything you've ever faced in your life, and you'll have to be far more outstanding than every single person who is pursuing her."

"I will work hard."

"Such a stubborn mule."

Li Hanzhou assumed Shi Ming was just joking, turned around, and prepared to head back.

At that very moment, however, a figure in a purple robe came running up the mountain, shouting as he approached, "A letter for Liu Dongyue!"

"Just give it to me."

Li Hanzhou took the letter for Liu Dongyue, initially expecting it to be some sort of challenge.

Instead, he saw three characters written on the envelope: 'Zhou Qianlin'.

"It's a letter from Eldest Senior Brother." Spotting the name on the letter, Shi Ming on the side looked somewhat surprised. With all the busy events lately, he had almost forgotten that their Longevity Temple even had an Eldest Senior Brother.

"He went down the mountain to suppress demons and hasn't returned even now. Truly remarkable." Li Hanzhou turned around immediately to find Liu Dongyue and handed the letter over to him.

"Eldest Senior Brother's letter?"

Liu Dongyue unsealed and read it, his expression shifting slightly a moment later.

"Second Senior Brother, what does Eldest Senior Brother say?" Shi Ming could not help asking.

"Uncle Master, Eldest Senior Brother says he has found the whereabouts of Master," Liu Dongyue told Li Hanzhou. "However, he is currently trapped in Wanshui Prefecture and cannot return. He hopes I can go and provide backup, and he also mentioned finding a lost treasure belonging to our Longevity Temple."

"What lost treasure could our Longevity Temple possibly have?" Hearing that there was a treasure, Li Hanzhou's eyes lit up.

"Who knows? Legend has it that our Longevity Temple was once very prosperous and powerful, so having a treasure is normal. But Uncle Master, isn't the important thing right now finding Master's whereabouts?" Liu Dongyue said, somewhat speechless.

"Oh, right, right."

Only then did Li Hanzhou remember his provisional senior brother.

Yet his own divination techniques could not find any information whatsoever regarding his senior brother, and this Zhou Qianlin had actually claimed to have found clues about him?

And as for that treasure, what on earth could it be?

"Where is Wanshui Prefecture?" Li Hanzhou asked with renewed curiosity.

"Uncle Master, Wanshui Prefecture is in the Great Zhou Empire," Yun Qianzi walked in at this moment and said. "Though it's strange, why did Eldest Senior Brother run all the way to the Great Zhou Empire just to suppress demons?"

"The Great Zhou Empire?" Li Hanzhou remarked, "Tianxuan Academy seems to be located in the Great Zhou Empire, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"Tianxuan Academy is the most powerful institution of learning in the Great Zhou Empire. Rumor has it that countless martial arts experts reside within the academy, and a vast number of martial arts masters who walk the pugilistic world originate from Tianxuan Academy, including top-tier powerhouses who have stepped into the Immortal-Approaching Realm. I've heard that Luo Jinanyi of Divine Peak Mountain originally came from Tianxuan Academy."

Yun Qianzi explained to Li Hanzhou as a form of popular science.

"Then we might as well make a trip there," Li Hanzhou said. "I'll go bring your Eldest Senior Brother back and incidentally look for your Master's whereabouts. Qianzi and Dongyue, the two of you keep an eye on the temple. I will take Shi Ming and make a trip to the Great Zhou Empire."

"Take Third Senior Brother?" Yun Qianzi instantly grew anxious. "Uncle Master, I want to go too."

"Be a good girl, we aren't going there to play. Taking your Third Senior Brother is necessary because he has important matters at Tianxuan Academy. I will be back very soon," Li Hanzhou comforted Yun Qianzi and said.

"Well... alright then." Despite her displeasure, Yun Qianzi ultimately compromised.

Naturally, Li Hanzhou did not feel entirely at ease leaving two children to watch the temple, but he had no other alternative at the moment. Therefore, taking a full day, Li Hanzhou drew a large number of talismans and handed them over to Liu Dongyue and Yun Qianzi.

If anyone from a hostile sect came to cause trouble, they were to use the Five Thunder Talismans to deal with them.

Additionally, Li Hanzhou set up formations within the Longevity Temple, using numerous talismans to converge into two grand arrays:

The Heavenly Gang Five Thunder Array.

The Eight Gates Golden Lock Array.

After that, Li Hanzhou even established a small teleportation array within the sect.

Li Hanzhou did not know much about teleportation arrays, so he could only construct a short-distance one capable of transmitting people a few miles at most, and it carried a degree of randomness. Afterwards, he buried three hundred and sixty True Yang Divine Fire Talismans throughout the Longevity Temple!

Once the teleportation array was activated, those three hundred and sixty True Yang Divine Fire Talismans would instantly reduce the entire Longevity Temple to ashes.

Even a powerhouse of Zhao Qianqiu's caliber would not dream of leaving alive if they came.

Anyone unaware would have thought Li Hanzhou had buried some peerless treasure inside the Longevity Temple.

Yet, despite Li Hanzhou's formidable spiritual soul, drawing so many talismans still left him half-exhausted.

Still, Li Hanzhou felt it was not enough.

Spending yet another afternoon, he refined a brand new spiritual treasure for Liu Dongyue.

The Immortal-Binding Rope!

If any enemies attacked, this could be used to trap them.

Only, a normal Immortal-Binding Rope was golden, whereas the contraption Li Hanzhou refined turned out to be pitch black. Still, Li Hanzhou couldn't be bothered by such trivialities.

As long as it worked.

Seeing that Li Hanzhou had refined yet another spiritual treasure for him, Liu Dongyue's hands trembled as he took it.

This pitch-black contraption was an Immortal-Binding Rope?

Surely this wasn't another spiritual treasure with some bizarre defect, right?

Liu Dongyue truly had psychological trauma from the eccentric contraptions Li Hanzhou crafted.

The Soul-Absorbing Bell from last time had actually caused someone to shit their pants.