"Any news?" Jiang Lan asked casually.
Lin Fan had been affected by the Azure Sea Heart Jade. Even if someone saved him, he would still be left with a cold affliction. For a short time, only Yang-attribute herbs could suppress it.
Yang-attribute herbs were exceedingly valuable, and only large shops and apothecaries in major cities sold them.
"Not for the moment. However, word has come from the Imperial Capital that Mr. Chu will be making a trip here to personally ensure Young Master's safety."
Uncle Ying answered respectfully. At the mention of "Mr. Chu," he could not help but reveal a trace of reverence.
"Oh? Mr. Chu is coming too?"
Jiang Lan was rather surprised.
He was a renowned Attendant of the Prime Minister's Manor, a Seventh Realm Dharma Aspect Realm cultivator of formidable strength.
In the present Nine Provinces Continent, a Seventh Realm Dharma Aspect Realm expert could stand at the very summit and look down upon the multitude of living beings.
Eighth Realm Tribulation Bridge Realm experts were even rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns, their traces elusive and nearly impossible to glimpse.
Uncle Ying respectfully said, "I heard that Mr. Chu is coming by to handle a matter for Master along the way. Madam also has an item to give Young Master. Mr. Chu can conveniently protect Young Master and resolve this assassin matter."
Lin Fan's "assassination" attempt on Jiang Lan was, in truth, utterly inconceivable for the Prime Minister's Manor as it stood today.
Although the Prime Minister's Manor had made quite a few enemies over the years, there were exceedingly few who dared to so openly "assassinate" Jiang Lan.
Everyone knew that the Prime Minister had only this one son. If anything happened to him, the skies over the Great Xia Dynasty would probably be overturned.
Not just anyone could bear the Prime Minister's wrath.
"With Mr. Chu coming, I can rest easy."
Jiang Lan smiled. Lin Fan was currently gravely wounded and weakened; Uncle Ying, with his Sixth Realm cultivation, was already more than enough to kill him.
But to be safe, lest some unforeseen accident occur again, he had still called for help from the Prime Minister's Manor.
The reason he had specifically instructed Uncle Ying to activate the Azure Sea Heart Jade when Lin Fan escaped was actually another matter entirely.
Aside from protecting him, the Azure Sea Essence within the Azure Sea Heart Jade would also cling to an enemy's soul.
As long as one held another Azure Sea Heart Jade, they could sense the other's location from afar.
The item his mother had asked Mr. Chu to deliver was precisely another Azure Sea Heart Jade.
After Uncle Ying left, Jiang Lan turned his gaze to the table of medicinal cuisine before him.
Though the cooked meat still contained abundant vitality and blood essence, it could provide him with very little life force. Perhaps it was because it was dead matter, long stripped of its vital essence.
"If I want to increase my lifespan, it seems I still have to rely on living beings..." Jiang Lan frowned slightly.
He had actually tried earlier. He could manipulate the life force of the servant girls in the City Lord's Mansion, those who possessed no cultivation whatsoever.
So long as he wished it, he could still take their lives as easily as he plundered the life force of grass and plants.
He could even directly judge their physical condition through the state of their lives, and even estimate their lifespans.
But this process consumed too much mental energy. The farther away they were from him, the weaker his perception and control became.
Jiang Lan had also tried to see whether he could manipulate Uncle Ying's life force, despite his Sixth Realm cultivation. Yet even when his mind had grown hazy and his head slightly dizzy, he could not shake the foundation of Uncle Ying's life.
Sixth Realm Divine Ability Realm cultivators had long Illuminated the Nether and Oneself, constructing their soul palaces.
Under normal circumstances, the Heaven and Earth Void Qi throughout their bodies formed armor of its own, impervious to outside intrusion.
Unless they were utterly weakened, gravely injured, and completely incapable of resistance, it was basically impossible for him, with his current abilities, to touch the origin of their lives.
However, if they were ordinary First Realm Body Refinement Realm or Second Realm Qi Cultivation Realm cultivators—
So long as they were close enough to him, he could still manipulate their life force.
This was much the same as Jiang Lan's earlier conjecture. The extent of his control over life was closely tied to the strength of his own mind and cultivation.
If he possessed the Fourth Realm Illuminating Nether Realm cultivation Su Qinghan currently had, manipulating the life of a Sixth Realm cultivator like Uncle Ying should not be difficult.
"The only uncertainty now is whether Lin Fan will be saved by Xiao Yingyue..."
"I truly have no idea which part of Jiangling Commandery Xiao Yingyue is in. And if she appears ahead of time, it means the plot is no longer unfolding as I know it. Where she will appear has become an unknown as well."
After finishing the medicinal meal, Jiang Lan returned to the courtyard where he rested.
There were, in truth, two choices before him.
The first was to wait by the tree stump for a hare. With Su Qingyao in his hands, he need not worry that Lin Fan would not show himself later. But this method was too troublesome and consumed too much time.
The second was to catch a turtle in a jar. No matter who saved Lin Fan, once Mr. Chu delivered the Azure Sea Heart Jade, he could determine where Lin Fan had fallen after tearing through the void.
He could then lay down a net from heaven to earth and encircle him. Lin Fan would naturally have no wings with which to escape.
But at present, either choice required time.
"Actually, this period is more than enough for me to do something else. The existence of the Life Dao Fruit is sufficient to conceal the state of my body; even those with profound cultivation will not see anything unusual..."
"Raising my strength is still the most important thing."
Jiang Lan searched through the memories in his mind, confirming the location of the Blood Immortal Sect's ruins.
Several thousand years ago, the Blood Immortal Sect had burst into existence. Its followers spread as swiftly as a plague, sweeping across the entire Nine Provinces Continent and bringing boundless calamity.
Many dynasties, kingdoms, Aristocratic Clans, and sects had been destroyed and vanished during that period.
It was only later, when the Great Xia Dynasty dispatched its forces to purge them and joined hands with numerous immortal sects in a war that lasted several centuries, that the Blood Immortal Sect was forced back and severely weakened, fading away thereafter.
But Jiang Lan, who knew the plot well, understood that the Blood Immortal Sect would rise again in the future, reducing the Nine Provinces Continent to a sea of suffering once more.
He naturally had no interest in stopping the Blood Immortal Sect. What interested him was the Blood Immortal Sect's Crimson Forbidden Canon.
Within it was a volume of cultivation method called the Boundless River of Life Sutra.
This was the cultivation technique Jiang Lan could think of that best suited his Life Dao Fruit. Moreover, because he could directly manipulate life force, the flaws of the Boundless River of Life Sutra could be perfectly resolved.
"There is still some time before the plot concerning the emergence of the Blood Immortal Sect's ruins, but that does not stop me from getting there first and cutting them off..."
Suddenly, a faint, pleasant fragrance drifted to his nose, accompanied by an air as clear and cold as a spring.
Jiang Lan's expression remained unchanged. "Remember to knock before entering."
"..."
A tall, slender figure appeared soundlessly behind Jiang Lan. She wore a light blue-green gauze robe over a slightly loose, veiled long dress. Her hair was piled like clouds, a jade hairpin slanting through it, while a mist-like veil lightly concealed her flawless, fair face.
Her clear, glass-like eyes held not a trace of emotion. Like an ice sculpture, she emanated a frost-cold aura that kept strangers at arm's length.
If Su Qinghan possessed the aloof chill of lonely snow deep in the mountains, then the woman before him was a true ten-thousand-year iceberg.
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