Besides the Daoist robe uniform and the identity jade disc, there was also a special communication talisman.
The talisman was circular, carved with intricate patterns around the edge and the character "Wan" in the center.
Sinking his divine sense into it, Li Fan felt as though he had stepped into a sea of stars.
Countless dim stars were faintly visible all around him.
These were all members within the establishment of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
He Zhenghao's figure crossed Li Fan's mind.
In an instant, among the countless stars, he found the one representing He Zhenghao.
Li Fan sent a friend request.
After a moment, that dim star lit up.
It stood out conspicuously amidst the dark sea of stars.
"Fellow Daoist moves fast! You've already formally joined? Congratulations, congratulations!" A message prompt from He Zhenghao immediately arrived.
"My thanks to you as well, Fellow Daoist He!" Li Fan sent back a reply.
No further response came from the other end; He Zhenghao was clearly immersed once again in his research on the Mountains and Rivers Grand Array.
Li Fan then sent friend requests to Chen Ying, Zhang Zhiliang, Gong Boyu, and the others.
Afterward, he withdrew his divine consciousness from the communication talisman.
Within the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan began searching for and browsing merit missions.
Unlike missions that awarded contribution points, merit missions were mostly issued directly by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
The types spanned everything from collecting resources to assisting with the daily operations of the Alliance.
There was also a rather special category: reporting and exposing spies from the Five Elders Association or other cultivation organizations who had infiltrated the Alliance.
Such missions awarded varying amounts of merit depending on the spy's rank.
At present, Li Fan's clearance level was Yan One.
In essence, completing virtually any merit mission would be enough to advance him to Yan Two.
However, there was a limit on accepting and completing merit missions.
One could only complete a maximum of three per year.
Li Fan was in no rush to accept one.
Aside from missions, there were other ways to earn merits.
For instance, recommending cultivators to join the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, just as He Zhenghao had done earlier.
Or providing valuable intelligence.
There were no restrictions on these methods—all were welcome, and the more, the better.
What caught Li Fan's interest was that the merits required to raise one's clearance level were not a fixed value.
Instead, they were displayed as a progress bar.
This was because the Heavenly Profound Mirror made real-time adjustments to merits based on current market values.
For instance, a mission requiring the turn-in of Crimson Cloud Ice was permanently available.
Completing it awarded a fixed low-grade third-class merit.
Yet the value of Crimson Cloud Ice itself fluctuated constantly.
Although the value of collected supplies did not usually swing too wildly under ordinary circumstances, there had been moments in the history of the Alliance when certain materials underwent massive depreciation.
Therefore, the Heavenly Profound Mirror adjusted and precisely controlled rewards in real time based on their true worth.
Li Fan focused on a mission whose reward was a mid-grade third-class merit.
A small progress bar immediately appeared beside the mission description.
Above the progress bar was a small numerical note:
1 + 43%.
This indicated that the mid-grade third-class merit gained from completing this mission would raise Li Fan's clearance by one full level plus forty-three percent progress.
The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had forty-nine clearance levels in total, drawn from the concept that the Great Dao has fifty, and Heaven evolves forty-nine.
Advancing was easy at first, but grew progressively harder the higher one went.
Having grasped the mechanics of merits and clearance levels, Li Fan began searching for cultivation techniques.
Immediately, he noticed a difference from before.
Several search results were conspicuously highlighted in golden text.
This signified that these techniques could only be viewed by members within the Alliance's establishment.
Furthermore, such techniques could only be redeemed for personal cultivation and could not be passed on to others.
If one were "lost" and learned by an outsider, members of the Protector Hall would be dispatched to recover it, and the cultivator who had originally redeemed it would be penalized.
A certain amount of merits would be docked.
Li Fan carefully examined these restricted techniques.
Some of the golden text shone bright gold, indicating that Li Fan's current clearance level allowed him to redeem them.
Another portion was dark gold.
The clearance level required to redeem these dark-gold techniques exceeded Li Fan's current standing.
Li Fan could only view their descriptions, not redeem them.
Generally speaking, one could see search results up to three clearance levels above one's own as a form of motivation.
Li Fan casually checked a dark-gold Golden Core stage technique.
"Gengjin Sword Nurturing Technique."
Sixty-five thousand contribution points, redeemable only at clearance level Yan Three.
"Absorbs Gengjin Qi to nurture sword intent within the body. Allows sword flight and can be wielded like a magic treasure to slay enemies."
"Its power is indeed far greater than anything I've seen before, and the price is significantly higher as well."
Li Fan checked several other dark-gold techniques, and all followed the same pattern.
"The Yanfa Jade deduces techniques day and night without ceasing; it must surely give birth to many astonishing divine arts.
"They likely wouldn't pale even against the heritage arts of ancient grand sects.
"Even if I can't redeem them, just taking a look to broaden my horizons would be worthwhile.
"Unfortunately, my clearance is too low.
"Clearance, clearance..."
Li Fan recalled the various ways to earn merits once more.
A figure suddenly flashed through his mind.
The Overseer of Tai'an Island, Zhou Qing'ang.
In the subsequent two lifetimes, this man had slipped away and departed before the Crimson Flame scorched the sea.
In Li Fan's view, there was something rather suspicious about that.
There were only two possibilities.
First, Zhou Qing'ang had backing, and very powerful backing at that.
In the tenth lifetime, not even the two Soul Formation Immortal Lords of Wanxian Island had sensed the arrival of the Crimson Flame in advance.
Yet Zhou Qing'ang had.
This meant Zhou Qing'ang's backing was even more formidable than Soul Formation experts.
Could it be some Dao Integration Immortal Venerable?
To Li Fan, this seemed highly unlikely.
If Zhou Qing'ang truly had a Dao Integration Immortal Venerable backing him, he could have simply departed early.
Why bother using the pretext of venturing out to seek opportunities and finding someone to act as surrogate overseer of Tai'an Island?
That made the remaining possibility far more probable.
Zhou Qing'ang was a spy planted inside the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals by another organization.
Li Fan believed that when the Crimson Flame descended back then, the world's top powerhouses must have sensed something beforehand.
Though for unknown reasons the Alliance headquarters had sent no warning to Wanxian Island in the Congyun Sea, other organizations should have caught at least some wind of it.
For example, the Wanhua Merchant Guild had issued an order for all personnel to evacuate the Congyun Sea before catastrophe struck.
Zhou Qing'ang must have received word from within his organization, which was why he cast off his shell like a cicada and slipped away far from Congyun.
Of course, this was merely Li Fan's conjecture for now.
To confirm it, he would still need to verify.
If he guessed wrong, so be it.
But if Zhou Qing'ang truly was a spy, Li Fan stood to make a tremendous gain.
Not only could he reap a vast sum of merits and contribution points,
more importantly, Li Fan also wanted to discover from him a way to deceive the Heart-Interrogation Platform.
Chapter 182