Chapter 171: Nothing New Under the Sun

After leaving Breeze Hall with 2700 stalks of Spirit Mist Grass, Li Fan wandered around the area for a while, hoping to find more hidden lending organizations.

Unfortunately, he had no such luck.

Li Fan returned to the Tianxuan Mirror and began calculating quietly.

The price of Spirit Mist Grass will briefly rise to 25 contribution points soon. I need to sell all of it before that happens.

Once news of the wood attribute grotto-heaven discovery spreads, the price will crash. It'll keep falling until it stabilizes at 6 contribution points.

At that time, I'll just buy 3510 stalks to repay Breeze Hall.

After this round trip, I should net nearly forty thousand contribution points.

Tch. So little. Making money is still too difficult...

It was harder to fall from luxury than to rise to it. Having grown accustomed to dealing in hundreds of thousands of contribution points, a mere thirty or forty thousand increase couldn't stir any excitement.

However, capital accumulation was always most difficult at the beginning. Once it reached a certain threshold, the snowball effect would take over, and his wealth would grow faster and faster.

A large-scale technique transmission business probably won't work even if I tried it again in this lifetime. It seems the cultivation world is strictly controlling the number of cultivators—their reaction was far more intense than I anticipated. The power of a Dao Unity cultivator is still beyond my current ability to handle.

Li Fan pondered carefully.

But I can't abandon those four hundred thousand contribution points from Zhang Zhiliang.

This cycle, I still need someone to push the Spirit Transformation cultivators of Myriad Immortals Island into conflict with Crimson Flame.

Though perhaps I should choose a different candidate.

The image of a fat man suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.

Zhang Haobo possessed unexpected fortune, but not heaven’s blessing.

He managed to slay Crimson Flame with the power of the desperate Congyun Sea and achieved Dao Unity as a Golden Core cultivator.

Yet, he had no power whatsoever to resist Ink Death who descended afterward, and was instantly eradicated.

His providence was exhausted, his body perished, and his Dao dissipated.

If his providence had been stronger, would the outcome have been different?

Of course, the main point is that I've already fully comprehended the Twenty-Eight Congyun Swords. Having Zhang Haobo repeat his actions would be useless for me now.

That Ye Feipeng has a peculiar fate. If given sufficient support, he might truly surprise me.

Supplemented with the Mountain-Sitting Art... I wonder how much cultivation feedback I'd receive if he successfully achieved Dao Unity. Could it push me to the Golden Core realm?

Of course, guiding this person requires a different approach. While Zhang Haobo responded to emotional appeals, this one must be tempted by profit.

After thorough planning, Li Fan settled on a course of action.

The reason he still chose to use proxies for the Dao Unity attempt rather than trying it himself was naturally that the risks were too high.

The black-clothed Dao Unity cultivator could already freeze Li Fan's thoughts, and Ink Death’s power clearly surpassed even that.

If even Zhang Haobo, who had actually made it to the Dao Unity realm, couldn't react before being erased, how could Li Fan ensure he'd be an exception?

Success was probable, but also failure and erasure—and the probability of the latter wasn't small. Once he failed, there would be no chances to try again. Li Fan did not need to take such a gamble.

I can wait until the Spirit Mist Grass situation is resolved before making arrangements in the Li World.

For now, Li Fan began searching for methods to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance's official ranks.

A flood of information immediately surfaced.

There were several pathways to secure an official position within the Myriad Immortals Alliance's system.

The first method was participating in the Alliance's decennial assessments. However, one had to meet specific criteria, such as membership in the Myriad Immortals Alliance for at least thirty years, cultivation at the Foundation Establishment realm or higher, and possessing a specialized skill.

Simply put, the Myriad Immortals Alliance didn't tolerate idlers or incompetents.

The second method involved securing a recommendation from a high-ranking Alliance official who was willing to sponsor a junior cultivator. After a three-year probationary period, a formal appointment could be granted.

Put plainly, the Myriad Immortals Alliance didn't suffer fools, unless you had connections.

The third method was more unconventional: completing specific bounty missions. These ranged from assassinating key figures of the Five Elders Council to accomplishing critical tasks.

Rumor had it that Zhou Qing'ang, the guardian of Tai'an Island, had officially joined the Myriad Immortals Alliance through this very method.

Li Fan found himself particularly intrigued by what He Zhenghao had mentioned about higher permission levels granting one access to previously hidden techniques.

He'd discovered that the techniques routinely available for exchange through the Myriad Immortals Alliance were generally of limited power.

None of the techniques Li Fan had seen in the Tianxuan Mirror across multiple lifetimes could be considered true divine arts. This was likely intentional to restrain the combat capabilities of ordinary Alliance cultivators.

They couldn't compare to the Twenty-Eight Congyun Swords, and even those that could match the Sea-Calming Sword Art were rare.

After some thought, Li Fan acknowledged that this made perfect sense. If beasts of burden became capable of posing threats, would they remain beasts of burden? Wouldn't they overturn the natural order? Of course restrictions were necessary.

But the treatment of insiders within the system was entirely different. With sufficient permission levels, every conceivable divine art became available. The benefits of being part of the system required no elaboration.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Li Fan began carefully examining those special bounty missions.

As he read, his brow furrowed. Having never previously paid attention to this aspect, none of the tasks initially made sense to him. But he quickly detected something peculiar.

Only a tiny minority were truly worth putting a bounty on, like tracking down spies from the Five Elders Council or eliminating traitors of the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

The overwhelming majority had extremely... tailored characteristics? Basically, they seemed to have been created for specific cultivators.

For instance, one mission posted stood out as particularly absurd: the Heavenly Mechanism Hall of the Myriad Immortals Alliance needed an assistant to help with calculating heavenly mechanisms. They were looking to recruit a cultivator surnamed Wu, aged 123-130 years, practicing fire attribute techniques, and at mid-stage Foundation Establishment realm.

They might as well have named the person directly.

Li Fan was familiar with this practice. A perfectly tailored peg for a pre-dug hole, as the saying went.

But he hadn't expected the Myriad Immortals Alliance to have deteriorated to this extent.

After scanning through all options, Li Fan found no suitable missions for himself. The decennial assessments had also concluded recently.

With no clear path forward, Li Fan once again consulted the ever-reliable Fellow Daoist He.

He Zhenghao replied with characteristic speed.

"You wish to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s official system? Well... that's somewhat difficult. Mainly because you've only recently joined the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

"However, it's not impossible. I have some connections with Array Master Gong Boyu. He has several open positions each year for array maintenance staff.

"You only need to spend a small amount of contribution points to secure this position.

"After working diligently in this role for a year or two, you can use other connections to transfer to different assignments.

"Heh, I'm only telling you this because we're close, Fellow Daoist. Please don't spread this information carelessly. It wouldn't look good."