Chapter 32: Another Difficult Pass

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  After some discussion, Li Wenjun's suspicion was quickly ruled out. This cannot be said that Wu Xuemei is not clever, nor can it be said that Li Wenjun is too cunning, but the evidence pointing to Li Wenjun, which is most unfavorable to him - the wound on his back, has long since healed itself.

  Without this most unfavorable evidence, coupled with his easily underestimated age and other reasons, he managed to pass through in a muddled way.

  Wu Xue Mei was just about to take someone and continue to interrogate the remaining dozen or so suspects when Wu Tao's personal attendant rushed over in a hurry.

  Chang followed Wu Xue Mei and cupped his hands, saying: "Young lady, the old master has an urgent order, asking you to bring all your brothers back to the county government immediately."

  "What's wrong? Something happened at the county government office again?" Wu Xue Mei asked.

  He lowered his voice and replied: "Something big has happened. News came from Shaoyi County that the notorious bandit Wang Yonggui has escaped to our Sanshan County."

  All the officials inhaled a breath of cold air, and even Wu Xue Mei's face was discolored. The wanted poster for Wang Yonggui was still posted at the city gate, with the ink not yet dry, but the main culprit had escaped to their San Shan County, which was absolutely not good news for them.

  Wang Yonggui is not a good person, ruthless and cruel, killing people like flies. There have been several families that he has killed to the last chicken and dog, with no survivors, including women, children, and the elderly. So far, Wang Yonggui has already taken over 100 lives, among them are not only the officials and soldiers who pursued him, but also some high-ranking officials who wore black hats have died at his hands.

  Wang Yonggui ran to Sanshan County, which not only means that the ordinary people of Sanshan County are in danger, but also that they may be in a precarious situation.

  Wu Xue Mei, whose face was somewhat pale, said: "Let's go back to the government office."

  "Big sister, aren't you going to look for the mountain spirit anymore?"

  Dai Zenghong was happier than anyone else, and he coldly snorted: "Still looking for what mountain spirit? Our duty is to protect the border and pacify the people. Wang Yonggui has fled to our San Shan County, so our top priority is naturally to catch Wang Yonggui first."

  Wu Xue Mei stared at Dai Zeng Hong for a moment, and the somewhat complacent Dai Zeng Hong shivered, hastily shutting his mouth and lowering his head.

  Li Wenjun had been in the yard, splitting all the dry firewood into fine strips suitable for burning. He knew that this was over for him, unless something uncontrollable happened, Wu Xuemei and others should not suspect him again.

  Even so, Li Wenjun did not immediately take out the wild mountain spirit he had hidden, but instead patiently waited for several days. His daily routine remained the same as before, with the exception of practicing martial arts for almost an hour every day, and going to the tea house to listen to storytelling.

  At first, Li Wenjun didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but after two days, he sensed that the atmosphere in the county town was becoming increasingly heavy, and rumors began to circulate on the streets - Wang Yonggui had arrived.

  Li Wenjun felt a wave of relief at first when he heard the news, followed by some tension.

  It's easy to be Wang Yonggui, as soon as he arrives, the county government will inevitably shrink its power to investigate the wild mountain spirit, and if time goes on a bit longer, it will be even more impossible for anyone to pursue him.

  Tension was also that Wang Yonggui might pose a threat to him, although there were tens of thousands of people in the county town, it's not necessarily possible for him to meet Wang Yonggui, but he wasn't afraid of ten thousand, just one in ten thousand. Many times, some things are just so coincidental, the more you don't want to encounter something, the more likely you will run into it. Once he and Wang Yonggui met on a narrow road, Li Wenjun asked himself if he could be Wang Yonggui's opponent at all.

  Wang Yonggui is not someone who can be compared to those county officials who only know how to bully the common people and catch small thieves. There are rumors in the streets that Wang Yonggui is a heroic figure from the rivers and lakes, a top-notch expert. With Li Wenjun's current skills, fighting with Wang Yonggui would mean certain death.

  Wang Yonggui may have infiltrated Sanshan County, this news is a great stimulus to Li Wenjun, making him more aware of the need to improve his strength as soon as possible. Practicing martial arts in the martial arts hall, becoming a top-notch or super high-handed person in the Jianghu world is too small, and it takes too long, compared to which, it is still the best choice to make progress in stagnant cultivation.

  Ye Shan Jing's limelight has passed, and for the time being, no one will be paying attention to him. Li Wen Jun decided to refine the Gathering Qi Powder. As long as he can successfully cultivate it, even if he encounters Wang Yong Gui, he will have the power to fight back.

  The refining method is recorded in detail in "Changchun Gong". Li Wenjun first translated "Changchun Gong", opened the page that recorded the refining method of Qi Su San, and carefully read it.

  This doesn't seem serious, but Li Wenjun was shocked.

  He found that although he knew all the words on this page and understood each word's meaning, when these words were combined together, they became extremely unfamiliar to him.

  Refining elixirs and making medicine is a highly specialized job, and it's extremely difficult to figure out on your own, which is why there's the saying "all beginnings are hard".

  Li Wenjun had no master, if he did, it would be that two-tael-silver-bought Taizu Dictionary.

  This tool book is not a specialized alchemy tool book, the interpretation of each word and phrase is based on daily life, politics, academia, hydrology and geography, ordinary readers will not have any problems using it. Monks in temples and Taoist priests can also use it to meet most of their needs, but if you want to use it to explain alchemy and medicine preparation which requires professional knowledge, it has exceeded the capability scope of Tai Zu Dictionary.

  Li Wenjun hastily scratched his ears and cheeks. Before collecting all the herbs, he didn't pay much attention to the refining method, but now that he really had to start doing it, he didn't dare to take action.

  He risked his life to collect a small amount of herbs on Mount Wufeng, but he didn't know how to refine them and recklessly tried to do so, which would only waste the materials and yield no results.

  Even if he accidentally succeeded in refining it, he didn't dare to take it.

  In case the elixir he refined was toxic, he would recklessly take it, and that would be Old Man Star of Longevity hanging himself, dissatisfied with his own long life.

  The master leads you into the door, but cultivation depends on yourself.

  Li Wenjun felt the profound meaning of this sentence for the first time. Without a master's guidance, most things in life seem easy but are difficult to do, requiring a lot of time and effort to explore and summarize before getting on the right track. But it is also possible that you spend time, pay your heart's blood, waste a lot of money and energy, and end up with nothing accomplished.

  Li Wenjun's life first raised the idea of finding a master, but where could he go to find one? Who should he ask to be his master? He didn't even know where cultivators lived. After two close encounters with cultivators, whether it was Lao Dao or so-called "Sixth Brother" and "Old Seventh", none of them were good people. If he asked them to be his master, he feared they would swallow him whole, bones and all.

  For several days, Li Wenjun was at a loss for what to do in the face of "Changchun Gong". Every day, except for practicing and going to the martial arts hall to practice martial arts, he didn't even go to the teahouse. After finishing his martial arts practice, he would return home and ponder over "Changchun Gong". With the help of Taizu's dictionary, he looked up the meaning of each word and phrase, searching for clues that could be used for research and contemplation, and thus deducing the method of refining and dispersing Qi.

  The more you read a book, the more its meaning will reveal itself.

  After several days of hard work, Li Wenjun finally had some gains. He had a bit of an epiphany about the refining method of Jiqi San, but it was still far from being 100% understood. At most, he could say that he only understood one or two tenths of it.

  Li Wenjun found that even if he had fully grasped the entire process, he was afraid that he still couldn't refine the Qi dispersing pill. The reason was simple: a necessary tool mentioned in the method was something he didn't have - a Dan refining furnace. He hadn't even seen what a Dan refining furnace looked like.

  Sometimes, Li Wenjun even wished he could go to the yard, pinch the soil into a furnace, light the grass as incense, and worship the gods passing by, praying that the great immortal would have great compassion and casually take out an alchemy stove.

  He didn't even hope that the immortal who passed by could give him an alchemy furnace, as long as he could take a look at what the alchemy furnace looked like, he would be grateful.

  Of course, such a prayer is impossible to come true. To say nothing of no one knowing Li Wenjun's wish, even if someone knew, which cultivator would take Li Wenjun's wish seriously? They would only treat Li Wenjun as an insignificant existence, not even sparing him a glance.

  Sometimes, Li Wenjun became so anxious that he wanted to throw the medicinal herbs he had collected with great difficulty into the fire and burn them, but reason made him suppress this foolish impulse.

  Li Wenjun believes that difficulties are only temporary and he will always find a way to solve these problems. He just needs time and opportunity.

  Knowing that things are not to be done, Li Wenjun carefully collected all the medicinal herbs and restored his original routine. In addition to his daily meditation, he practiced martial arts in the Wu Guan, listened to books in the tea house, and also developed a new habit of wandering around the streets and alleys of the county town, hoping that one day he would encounter an opportunity to help him solve the problem.

  It's been several months again, and Li Wenjun has made no progress. His cultivation speed is still as slow as a snail, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that even a snail is hundreds of times faster than him. Fortunately, Li Wenjun's heart has calmed down, and he doesn't think it's a hardship. He continues to live his life in a carefree and contented manner every day.

  At this time, winter has already arrived, the cold weather of the twelfth lunar month is icy and bone-piercing, the heavy snow that fell a few days ago has turned the entire world into a snowy white color, with a unique crystal clear beauty.

  The people of the county had almost forgotten about Wang Yonggui, after all, life had to go on. However, in the county government, from County Magistrate Wu Tao down to the ordinary runners, no one could sleep soundly. Wu Tao requested reinforcements from the prefecture and asked for assistance from the local garrison's hundred-man unit, launching several searches for Wang Yonggui, even engaging him in brief battles a few times. Although they failed to capture him, several runners were killed instead.

  Dai Zenghong, who had once fought with Li Wenjun, also died in the midst of capturing Wang Yonggui.