With the aid of True Reversion, Li Fan could undergo endless cycles of reincarnation.
Apart from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, if given the opportunity in the future, he would certainly venture to other factions like the Five Elders Association.
He believed they would likely possess methods akin to the Heart-Interrogation Platform as well.
To prevent exposure and avoid being executed outright as a spy, finding a secret technique capable of concealment was imperative.
Moreover, a method to guard the secrets of his mind was of paramount importance to someone harboring True Reversion.
*You had better truly be a spy, Fellow Daoist Zhou,*
Li Fan thought to himself as he recalled the scene of their initial meeting.
Immediately after, he sent messages to He Zhenghao, Gao Yuan, Chen Ying, and several others he knew, inquiring about Zhou Qing'ang.
After more than half a day, replies trickled in.
Setting aside those who knew nothing of the man, the other responses were remarkably consistent.
Zhou Qing'ang had originally been a rogue cultivator.
Over seventy years ago, at the late Qi Condensation stage, he had joined the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
After advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage, he successfully passed the decennial assessment and became the overseer of Tai'an Island.
In his daily duties, Zhou Qing'ang was diligent and conscientious, treating his work with great responsibility.
Most of the time, he stayed quietly on the island, rarely venturing out.
...
With this information in hand, Li Fan became even more confident in his assessment.
Next, he had to find a way to expose the man's fox tail.
To have infiltrated the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals for so many years without anyone discovering him, the man had to be exceptionally cautious.
For anyone else, finding a flaw in his facade might prove difficult.
Yet for Li Fan, who possessed Formless Killing Intent, as long as the man truly was a spy, under seamless, round-the-clock, year-round surveillance, it would only be a matter of time before he gave himself away.
Donning a genial smile, Li Fan left the Heavenly Profound Mirror and traveled to Tai'an Island via the teleportation array.
Having served as acting overseer for a few years, Li Fan was quite familiar with the island.
Above the city where those bizarre human-faced fruits lived, Li Fan met Zhou Qing'ang and explained the reason for his visit.
"The Tai'an fruit? Fellow Daoist, your timing is truly unfortunate. Every last fruit has already been sold; none remain," Zhou Qing'ang said, shaking his head apologetically.
"Ah, what terrible luck. I only just heard that such an affordable marvel capable of extending one's lifespan existed. It's utterly impossible to snap one up in the Heavenly Profound Mirror, so I thought I'd come see if Fellow Daoist had any in reserve." Li Fan let out a sigh, his expression full of regret.
Yet even as he spoke, he directly activated Formless Killing Intent and locked onto Zhou Qing'ang.
Formless Killing Intent was profoundly mysterious to begin with, and Li Fan's cultivation exceeded his by an entire minor realm.
Zhou Qing'ang naturally detected nothing amiss. Instead, he offered an enthusiastic suggestion: "Fellow Daoist need not feel disheartened. If you truly need one, once the next harvest of Tai'an fruit comes in, I will reserve one for you."
Li Fan beamed with joy. "Many thanks, Fellow Daoist!"
Saying so, he produced his Wan-character communication talisman to add him as a contact.
"I currently hold the post of array repairer in the Formation Planning Hall. We should keep in touch and visit each other often in the future!" Li Fan remarked. "I wonder if Fellow Daoist is acquainted with He Zhenghao, the overseer of Liuli Island? Fellow Daoist He and I share quite a close relationship."
Zhou Qing'ang's eyes lit up, and he promptly accepted the contact request.
"Haha, my relationship with Fellow Daoist He is fairly good as well. It turns out we are all acquaintances!"
Li Fan went along with Zhou Qing'ang's words and engaged in idle conversation for a while.
Only then did he return to Wanxian Island.
Within the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan directly transferred one hundred contribution points to Zhou Qing'ang.
"Fellow Daoist Zhou, I've transferred the contribution points to you in advance. Please be sure to save a Tai'an fruit for me."
Before long, Zhou Qing'ang sent his reply:
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist. Even if I fail to meet my annual delivery quota, I will definitely keep one for you!"
"Fellow Daoist Zhou is truly a straightforward man!"
While offering praise, Li Fan observed Zhou Qing'ang's every movement through the perspective of heaven and earth.
His expressions remained completely ordinary.
Li Fan did not expect to uncover a flaw immediately.
With Formless Killing Intent keeping watch, the day would come when he slipped up.
Setting the matter aside for the moment, Li Fan transferred the fifteen thousand contribution points to He Zhenghao and began formally sifting through merit missions.
He intended to raise his clearance level first, then see whether he could locate a cultivation technique that allowed a single mind to divide its focus among multiple tasks.
This was quite important to him.
Back in his twelfth life, he had encountered the problem of running out of mental bandwidth.
Once the scale of loans at Mingyue Palace grew increasingly vast, Li Fan had to maintain array studies for both his true self and his clone while constantly monitoring nearly a hundred loan recipients.
Although he allocated merely a wisp of focus to the vast majority of them, having so much attention cast outward inevitably took a toll on his true self.
In practice, his thoughts would sometimes pause momentarily, and his normal thinking speed noticeably slowed.
Put simply, Li Fan occasionally felt as though his brain was lagging.
To resolve this issue, there were two solutions.
The first was to raise the overall strength of his mind and spirit.
The second was to enhance his mind's multi-threaded processing capacity—the ability to multitask with a single mind.
Compared to ordinary cultivators, Li Fan's divine sense was already exceptionally powerful.
At the late Foundation Establishment stage, it rivaled the late Golden Core stage, a full major realm above that of ordinary cultivators.
Moreover, he had now found a method to strengthen his divine sense by entering the Fallen Immortal Realm and absorbing the physical shells of the bodies he possessed.
For the time being, there was no need to seek other ways to bolster the raw strength of his divine sense.
Therefore, what Li Fan needed to do was shore up his weakness:
Find a way to multitask with a single mind.
In his twelfth life, despite possessing a fortune of millions, no such cultivation method had been available within the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
He had been forced to scrape by as best he could.
In this life, however, since he had already entered the establishment of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, he naturally had to seize this chance to find a technique that could enhance multi-threaded processing.
Li Fan had searched earlier, but at the Yan One clearance level, he had not found a suitable method.
Yet Li Fan was confident that as his clearance level rose, a satisfactory result would inevitably appear.
At present, Li Fan possessed a Foundation Establishment cultivation base, and most of the merit missions he could accept corresponded to Rank C merits.
Occasionally, one or two Lower-Grade Rank D merit missions were flagged as high-risk.
Li Fan's targets lay among these high-risk missions.
The so-called high risk was, in truth, entirely relative.
For an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, a Golden Core-level mission was clearly beyond their capabilities.
Yet for Li Fan, who was equipped with numerous extraordinary arts, the risk of these missions was not actually that high.
For instance, one mission required accompanying a squad from the Martial Practice Hall to eradicate strange beasts on Wanlai Island in the Congyun Sea.
According to the mission description, these strange beasts fed on sound.
They reproduced at an astonishing rate, roamed in packs, and existed in immense numbers.
A large portion of them had to be cleared out at regular intervals.
Though the beasts swarmed in great numbers, their individual strength was fairly weak.
Their baseline combat strength was merely equivalent to the early Foundation Establishment stage.
It could not have been more suitable for Li Fan.
Chapter 183