"Zhang Zhanlin, why are you here, and how did you get injured?" Li Xuan said, trying to contain his mixed feelings of shock and anger.
So this person is Zhang Zhanlin. Meng Zhang thought to himself.
After Li Xuan joined the Taiyi Sect, he disclosed much of his past with the Li family to Meng Zhang. It turned out that Zhang Zhanlin was an old friend's son.
Years ago, when this old friend went on an expedition to seek treasures, he returned severely injured. Before he passed away, he entrusted his only son, Zhang Zhanlin, to his loyal friend Li Xuan.
Li Xuan treated Zhang Zhanlin as his own, nurturing and raising him by his side. Over the years, their bond grew deeper, akin to that of a true father and son.
When Li Xuan was running a shop in Singing Sand City, Zhang Zhanlin was his most reliable assistant.
After the Li family was annihilated by the sand monsters, Li Xuan couldn't bear leaving his family behind, so he returned to the Li family before finally joining the Taiyi Sect. By that time, a considerable amount of time had passed.
Once Li Xuan settled his family, he also tried to find Zhang Zhanlin in Singing Sand City. However, Zhang Zhanlin, along with some other members of the Li family, mysteriously disappeared. No matter how much Li Xuan inquired, there was no trace of them.
Initially, Li Xuan thought that Zhang Zhanlin, like the other Li family members, had been secretly eliminated by the family's enemies.
This saddened Li Xuan greatly, and he regretted arranging for Zhang Zhanlin to stay at the Li family's shop.
Unexpectedly, Li Xuan had now encountered Zhang Zhanlin in this place, and seeing him on the brink of death filled Li Xuan with immense pain and regret.
Zhang Zhanlin was too weak to answer Li Xuan's questions; his consciousness was fading, leaving only some instinctive reactions.
Zhang Zhanlin's face was pale, devoid of any color. He had a large hole in his abdomen, exposing his internal organs, and several vital points had been pierced from front to back.
It was evident that Zhang Zhanlin not only suffered severe injuries but had been in this state for a considerable time without receiving any treatment.
Meng Zhang hesitated for a moment and then took out a jade bottle, from which he retrieved a green pill the size of a pea.
Meng Zhang had conducted a long period of alchemical exchanges with Shi Weiming. Besides obtaining some pills to enhance Cultivation Base for the sect's disciples, he also acquired some healing pills for emergencies.
Among them, the Vitality Restoration Pill was one of the most precious.
Meng Zhang infused true qi into the pill, causing it to release a green smoke. With Zhang Zhanlin's faint breaths, the smoke entered his mouth and nose, rapidly spreading its medicinal power throughout his body.
A strong vitality surged within Zhang Zhanlin, temporarily stalling the dissipation of his life force.
Although not a professional healer, Meng Zhang had gained some knowledge of medical arts from the inheritance he received. He could manage the injuries with some basic treatments.
Meng Zhang was about to take action when Jue Ying spoke up, "Let me handle this; I'm good at dealing with these types of injuries."
Having known each other for some time, Meng Zhang had developed a certain level of trust in Jue Ying, so he let her take over.
Jue Ying didn't boast; her healing skills were exceptional, and she had considerable accomplishments in various aspects of cultivation and medical arts.
With her rich experience and skilled techniques, she quickly applied several medicinal pills, stabilizing Zhang Zhanlin's injuries.
Encountering such a severely injured person like Zhang Zhanlin, the three of them didn't rush to move forward. Instead, they stayed back for a while to observe his condition.
After taking the medicine, Zhang Zhanlin's condition began to improve noticeably. His injuries started to heal, and he fell into a deep slumber.
After half an hour, Zhang Zhanlin slowly regained consciousness.
Upon awakening and seeing Li Xuan before him, Zhang Zhanlin thought he was dreaming.
After a while, Zhang Zhanlin's mind cleared completely.
Seeing that Zhang Zhanlin was very weak, Jue Ying fed him a bottle of medicinal water and performed a few simple techniques on his body, reviving his spirits.
"You'd better keep it brief. Once he gets through this critical period, he'll fall back into a deep sleep to recover from his injuries," Jue Ying warned. Li Xuan, focused on the present situation, asked Zhang Zhanlin to briefly recount what had happened.
As Zhang Zhanlin weakly narrated, the events that had taken place after he parted ways with Li Xuan gradually unfolded before them.
After the Li family was exterminated by the sand monsters, following the initial chaos, someone finally stepped up to take charge of the situation.
Li Shengqi had been the deputy of the elder responsible for gathering external intelligence for the Li family. Although his cultivation base was only at the Refining Qi Sixth Layer, he possessed great cunning and scheming.
Faced with the hopeless situation of the Li family's fall from grace, Li Shengqi knew that it was impossible for the Li family to rebuild there.
The only chance for the Li family's revival was for its members to leave and start anew somewhere else.
Many ancient and powerful cultivation families like the Li family would leave hidden measures behind. After the family's decline, these measures would come into play, preserving the family's legacy.
The hidden measure left by the Li family's ancestors was the construction of a secret treasury in this place, meant for future generations to rebuild the family after facing calamities.
Naturally, this secret was strictly kept among only a few high-ranking members of the family.
Unfortunately, the Li family's destruction had been too abrupt, and all of the high-ranking members perished during the sand monsters' attack.
Li Shengqi only learned about this secret by a stroke of luck.
Knowing that he was too big of a target and that he could no longer escape the pursuit of the Zhao Family, he arranged for his son, Li Zhan, and a group of family members to disappear mysteriously while he stayed in the open to attract the Zhao Family's attention and buy time for Li Zhan.
Li Zhan and the others were supposed to seize the opportunity to take the treasures from the family treasury and immediately leave, escaping the Zhao Family's sight.
Unfortunately, there was a Second Rank puppet guarding the family treasury.
Without the family's heritage token, Li Zhan and his companions couldn't control the puppet.
The puppet had no intelligence, only following predetermined commands.
Its mission was to guard the treasury and kill anyone who tried to steal the treasures within.
Helpless, Li Zhan and the others had no choice but to forcibly attack the puppet.
As a Second Rank puppet, it possessed the combat strength of a Foundation Building stage cultivator. Of course, a puppet without intelligence would not be a match for a Foundation Building cultivator, but it had overwhelming power against a group of Refining Qi stage junior cultivators.
Thankfully, Li Zhan and the others were not too foolish; they knew the puppet was driven by spirit stones. They didn't need to confront the puppet head-on; instead, they slowly depleted its strength. When the puppet's internal spirit stones ran out, it lost its fighting ability.
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