“Li, Big Brother Li, are we safe now? What about that person just now?” Zhang Cong, who was under Li Tan’s arm, asked anxiously.
Li Tan put him down and asked in concern, “How are you feeling now? Any discomfort?”
“I feel okay, just a bit nauseous, hehe.” Zhang Cong grinned foolishly.
“This isn’t a joke,” Li Tan said seriously. “Tell me exactly how you feel right now. You can’t just take pills randomly. Even if the pill itself has no issues, its powerful medicinal effects could kill an ordinary person instantly!”
Zhang Cong’s face turned pale. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.” Li Tan replied while placing his hand on Zhang Cong’s abdomen, carefully channeling his internal energy into him and letting it flow through his meridians.
Zhang Cong, nervous and stammering, said, “I, I just feel nauseous and have a headache. That’s all, really! Li, Big Brother Li, I won’t actually die from this, right?”
“Hmm, strange,” Li Tan suddenly frowned and sent his internal energy circulating through Zhang Cong’s meridians again.
“Big Brother Li, what’s going on now?”
“I’m not sure either, but at least you’re not in any life-threatening danger.”
Li Tan continued to do his best to search for any abnormalities in Zhang Cong’s body, while Zhang Cong himself greatly relaxed.
As long as he wouldn’t die, that was fine.
After thoroughly examining for a quarter of an hour and still finding nothing, Li Tan finally stopped, although he still couldn’t figure out what was going on. However, he had some guesses.
Recalling the situation underground, the evil cultivator had clearly been winning, but suddenly ran like crazy toward the cauldron, producing that black pill. After Zhang Cong grabbed the pill, the evil cultivator slapped him with a force not even enough to hurt an ordinary person. Shortly after, Zhang Cong was able to stand and walk on his own, while the evil cultivator died instantly, just like the previous black-robed man.
According to Li Tan’s research, this kind of death only occurred when someone leaked the organization’s secrets. At that time, the evil cultivator had shown no intention of revealing anything to him, leaving only one possibility.
That evil cultivator had defected from the organization and was trying to develop an antidote to remove the toxins controlling him.
Although that was his hypothesis, there was no solid evidence. Moreover, the evil cultivator had now turned to ashes, so further speculation would be useless.
Putting those thoughts aside, Li Tan asked Zhang Cong with some admiration, “Why did you think of grabbing and eating his pill back then?”
Zhang Cong lowered his head and pondered carefully. After a while, he said with a bitter expression, “I can’t really remember. I just acted on impulse back then.”
“Whether it was on impulse or not, you’ve definitely helped me a lot. Do you have any wishes? I’ll do my best to fulfill them, as long as they’re not excessive.”
Li Tan smiled.
Zhang Cong’s eyes immediately lit up, and he was so excited that he almost jumped up on the spot.
“Tha, that, I… I…” However, due to his excitement, he couldn’t even speak clearly.
“You can take your time to think about it. Give me your answer before we reach the imperial capital.”
“Okay!”
Zhang Cong nodded with great anticipation.
Soon, the two returned to where the caravan was stationed.
“Cong’er!”
As soon as Zhang Xiucai saw the two return, he rushed at an astonishing speed to stand in front of Zhang Cong. His big hands anxiously touched all over his son’s body, filled with concern. “Are you okay? Did anything happen? Oh no, why is there so much blood? Are you alright?”
“Dad, don’t touch my face, it hurts! I’m fine, it’s just a little blood. Mom said eating more eggs can replenish blood. I’ll just eat more later, right?”
Zhang Xiucai was filled with heartache, but seeing that his son had returned safe and sound, full of energy, he quickly put on a stern expression to assert his paternal authority. “You reckless brat, go stand in the corner facing the wall! Now you don’t even listen to your father anymore!”
Zhang Cong said plaintively, “Didn’t you agree to let me go with Big Brother Li just now?”
“With your personality, if I didn’t let you go, wouldn’t you have climbed onto the roof and torn off the tiles?”
It was clear that Zhang Xiucai didn’t really mean to scold him and was actually quite happy.
Whether Zhang Cong truly understood Zhang Xiucai’s genuine feelings remained unclear, but in any case, he was scolded and left with an indignant expression.
Zhang Xiucai took three steps in one stride to reach Li Tan, asking with both anticipation and nervousness, “Master Li, um, was my son of any help?”
“Yes, he was of great help.”
Li Tan replied.
Zhang Xiucai’s face immediately showed visible joy as he eagerly asked, “Then can we leave now?”
Li Tan nodded.
“So what do we do now?”
Li Tan simply said one word: “Wait.”
Zhang Xiucai’s smile instantly froze.
Li Tan then added four more words: “Sleep and wait for dawn.”
Zhang Xiucai immediately relaxed and happily announced this good news out loud.
Li Tan looked at the sky. The moon slowly moved, and then the sun rose from the east again, signaling the beginning of a new day.
To the people in the caravan, the formation had truly ended, and everyone was overjoyed.
“Master Li.”
Zhang Xiucai carefully called out to Li Tan, who was in the middle of meditating and cultivating.
“What is it?”
Li Tan opened his eyes.
“It’s dawn.”
“I know. Anything else?”
“Er, weren’t we originally here for food?
Who knew we’d run into such a situation?
Now everyone only has half a day’s worth of rations left, so I wanted to go to the village to see if I could find anything useful. However, I’m afraid the things I find might be poisonous, so I wanted to trouble Master Li a bit.”
Li Tan thought for a moment, nodded, and stood up. “This is originally part of my responsibility. Bring some people and let’s go now.”
“Great!”
Zhang Xiucai called over four or five strong young men, each carrying sacks, to follow behind.
The village had just experienced a disaster, so most households still had grain stored in their rice jars. Occasionally, they could find some leftover pancakes, and there were also many fresh vegetables in the fields. After going around once, the caravan’s food problem was completely solved, with several large sacks filled to the brim.
“You guys go back first.”
Zhang Xiucai instructed the men, but after they left, he himself didn’t move.
Li Tan asked, “Is there something else Uncle Zhang wants to do?”
Zhang Xiucai nodded and led Li Tan through the streets and alleys. Soon, they arrived at the village chief’s house.
“What are we doing here?”
“Well, the villagers here probably aren’t all dead. Many of the younger ones might be in Fancheng. We can’t just take other people’s food without permission, so we should leave an IOU. Also, I need to trouble Master Li to come in with me. I’m a bit afraid…” Li Tan recalled the experience at the village chief’s house that night and understood Zhang Xiucai’s feelings, so he took the lead and walked in.
The main hall was empty. The door to the village chief’s bedroom was open. Li Tan hesitated for a moment before slowly walking in. Then he saw the village chief and the old woman lying quietly on the bed. In the old woman’s arms was a young man.
Zhang Xiucai’s voice trembled slightly as he said, “This one seems to be the village chief’s son. The old man had a child late in life. Just when they were about to enjoy their golden years, a sudden disaster struck. Alas, how pitiful.”
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