After emerging from Qingfeng Hall with two thousand seven hundred stalks of Spirit Mist Grass tucked away, Li Fan strolled around the area for a while longer, hoping to uncover more hidden lending outfits.
To his regret, he found none.
Returning to the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan began calculating in silence.
"The price of Spirit Mist Grass will soon spike briefly to twenty-five contribution points. I must sell everything off before then.
"Once word gets out that a wood-attribute grotto-heaven has been discovered, the price will plummet, sliding all the way down to six points before stabilizing.
"When that time comes, I'll buy three thousand five hundred and ten stalks to repay Qingfeng Hall.
"Back and forth, that will net me roughly forty thousand contribution points.
"Tsk, so little.
"Making money is still far too difficult..."
It was hard to adjust to frugality after growing accustomed to luxury. Having grown used to counting points by the hundreds of thousands, a modest gain of thirty or forty thousand hardly stirred his enthusiasm.
Even so, the earliest phase of capital accumulation was often the hardest. Once wealth reached a certain order of magnitude, the snowball would roll, growing faster and faster.
*In this life, aggressively expanding the Dharma-transmission business like before probably won't work anymore. There seems to be a strict cap on the number of cultivators, and the cultivation world's reaction was violent far beyond my expectations. A Dao Integration strike is not something I can stand against yet,* Li Fan pondered carefully.
*The four hundred thousand points at Zhang Zhiliang's side, however, cannot be abandoned.
*In this life, someone still needs to push the Soul Formation experts of Wanxian Island into battling Crimson Flame.
*Only, perhaps I can switch candidates.*
The figure of a stout young man suddenly sprang to mind.
*Zhang Haobo possessed extraordinary luck, yet lacked the mandate of Heaven. Even though he could draw upon the desperate, dying fury of the Congyun Sea to slay Crimson Flame and successfully achieve Dao Integration as a Golden Core cultivator...
*...when Mo Sha descended moments later, he was wiped out without the slightest ability to resist.
*His fortune ran dry, and his life and Dao were extinguished.
*If his fortune were stronger, would the outcome be any different?
*Of course, the most important factor is that I have already fully grasped all Twenty-Eight Congyun Swords. Having Zhang Haobo do it again offers me no further benefit.
*That Ye Feipeng possesses a peculiar destiny. Given enough support, he might truly present me with an unexpected surprise.
*Supplemented by the Mountain-Sitting Formula...
*I wonder how much cultivation he would feed back to me if he succeeds at Dao Integration. Could it push me straight into the Golden Core realm?
*Naturally, guiding him will require a different approach. Zhang Haobo could be moved by sentiment, but this one must be enticed with profit.*
After turning over his schemes, Li Fan had reached a conclusion.
The reason he still chose to use an agent to attempt Dao Integration rather than stepping forward himself was straightforward: the risk was simply too high.
The black-robed Dao Integration cultivator had nearly frozen Li Fan's very thoughts, to say nothing of Mo Sha, whose power was clearly far superior.
When even Zhang Haobo, freshly integrated with the Dao, had been eradicated before he could react, how could Li Fan guarantee he would be an exception?
There was a chance of success, but also a chance of failure and instant obliteration—and the odds of failure were far from small.
Once he failed, there would be no second chance to start over.
Li Fan had no reason to gamble.
*I can wait until the dust settles on the Spirit Mist Grass affair before heading to the Li Realm to lay out the board.
*As for right now...*
Li Fan searched for ways to join the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
A heap of information swiftly appeared.
To hold a post within the Alliance and enter the system, several avenues existed.
The first was to sit for the Alliance's decennial assessment.
To qualify for this examination, one had to satisfy several conditions: for instance, one had to have been a member of the Alliance for at least thirty years, possess a cultivation at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher, and hold a specialized skill, among other requirements.
Put simply, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals did not maintain idlers or deadweights.
The second method was to secure a guarantee from a high-ranking cultivator within the Alliance, who would recommend a junior for a post. Only after passing a three-year probationary period could one receive a formal appointment.
Put simply, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals did not maintain idlers or deadweights—unless they had backing up top.
The third method was rather special: completing designated bounty missions. These included assassinating key figures from the Five Elders Association or accomplishing critical Alliance assignments.
It was said that Tai'an Island's garrison chief, Zhou Qing'ang, had obtained his formal post through this very route.
Li Fan was deeply intrigued by what He Zhenghao had mentioned: that raising one's clearance to a certain tier would grant access to cultivation techniques that were otherwise completely hidden.
He had realized that the techniques routinely offered for exchange by the Alliance were generally modest in power.
Perhaps out of a desire to curtail the combat strength of regular cultivators, none of the techniques Li Fan had seen in the Wanxuan Mirror across his lifetimes were divine arts in the true sense.
Leave aside something comparable to the Twenty-Eight Congyun Swords; even methods matching the Sea-Calming Divine Sword were exceedingly rare.
On second thought, however, Li Fan found this entirely logical. If beasts of burden could become dangerous threats, would they still remain beasts of burden? Wouldn't they try to overturn heaven and earth? Naturally, restrictions had to be imposed.
For insiders within the system, the treatment was naturally different. So long as one's clearance was sufficient, every manner of divine art was readily available.
The perks of being inside the establishment went without saying. Li Fan carefully examined the special bounty missions.
As he read through them, his brow furrowed. Having never paid attention to this area before, he was initially at a loss, but he quickly detected something unusual.
Only a rare few of these missions held genuine bounty value, such as tracking down a Five Elders Association spy or executing a traitor to the Alliance.
The overwhelming majority of the missions, however, possessed a glaring degree of...
Tailoring?
It was as if the bounties had been created specifically for a designated cultivator.
One listing Li Fan came across was particularly absurd:
*The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' Heavenly Secret Hall, to meet the requirements of heavenly divination, requires the recruitment of a middle Foundation Establishment cultivator surnamed Wu, aged between 123 and 130 years, who cultivates a fire-attribute technique.*
It stopped just short of naming the intended candidate outright.
Li Fan was no stranger to such tactics. A designated pit for a designated radish.
Yet he had not expected the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals to have degraded to this degree as well.
After sifting back and forth through the options, Li Fan found no mission suitable for himself.
Meanwhile, the decennial examination had only recently concluded.
Having no connections of his own, Li Fan turned once more to Fellow Daoist He, who never failed to deliver.
He Zhenghao replied promptly as always.
"Fellow Daoist wishes to formally enter the Alliance? Well, that is somewhat tricky. The main issue is that you have only joined the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals fairly recently.
"Still, it is not impossible.
"I maintain a bit of friendship with Formation Master Gong Boyu. Each year, he receives a quota of appointments for array maintenance technicians.
"You need only spend a modest sum of contribution points to secure the post.
"After toiling in that position for a year or two, you can leverage other connections to arrange a transfer elsewhere.
"Haha, I would only say this to someone like you, Fellow Daoist. Please do not broadcast this around.
"It wouldn't look good."
Chapter 169