Guo Yezhong was a man obsessed with the Dao of formations all his life.
His mind was mercurial, often seized by whimsical and outlandish notions. He was also fond of wine, and more often than not, after getting thoroughly plastered, he would ramble to close friends about all sorts of seemingly impractical fantasies lingering in his head.
His friends regarded it as mere drunken babble and mostly laughed it off.
Not long ago, Guo Yezhong had once again drunk himself into a stupor.
He recounted to his friends a vision he had seen in a dream: Heavenly Profound hung in the sky like a spiderweb, blanketing the four wildernesses, locking down all living beings.
Because it was far too bizarre, none of his friends took it seriously this time either, treating it merely as a laughing matter.
Instead, once Guo Yezhong sobered up, they poked fun at him over it.
To their surprise, Guo Yezhong's complexion instantly changed upon hearing their teasing. After sternly warning them never to speak of it carelessly, he flicked his sleeves and stormed off.
For several days afterward, he kept his doors shut to visitors and never stepped outside.
Then, out of the blue, word came that he had gained a faint epiphany and was heading out to seek an opportunity to break through to the Golden Core realm.
Once he left, he never returned.
A few days later, an anomaly descended from the sky, guiding passersby to discover his corpse.
***
"Bad liquor truly ruins lives!" Li Fan sighed faintly, then fell into deep thought.
Did the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals silence him to prevent leaks?
For the Alliance, which desperately needed formation talent, there was absolutely no reason for that.
A single recruitment order would have been enough to have him pour his blood and sweat into the construction of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation. There was no need to resort to such extreme measures.
"Then the remaining possibility is that the Five Elders Association made a move.
"After I leaked the phrase 'Heavenly Profound locks the spirit, Xuanhuang is unified' to the Five Elders Association, they were bound to exhaust every method to probe for related intelligence.
"Yet because the Alliance kept security so tight, they gleaned very little.
"Until they noticed that a seemingly unremarkable Foundation Establishment cultivator had openly, brazenly described a scene related to the Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock while drunk.
"And so disaster struck Guo Yezhong out of nowhere..."
Li Fan stroked his chin, deducing the likely course of events.
"Though Guo Yezhong possessed extraordinary talent in formations, he probably didn't know much about the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation either. At most, a vague concept had just begun to sprout in his mind.
"Meanwhile, the Five Elders Association's research into formations is in no way inferior to that of the Alliance. With Guo Yezhong serving as the catalyst, there's no telling what the final outcome will be.
"In this lifetime, the Alliance's fanfare and preparations for the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation are even greater than in the previous life.
"What is almost certain is that under the struggle between both sides, either the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation will never be born,
"or it will evolve into something far more terrifying than in the previous life.
"I can only hope the Five Elders Association lives up to expectations. If worse comes to worst, I can give them a helping hand when necessary."
Li Fan pondered thoroughly a bit longer, recalling the schematic diagram of the Spirit-Locking Formation.
Only after quite a while did he suppress the stray thoughts in his mind.
As for this major affair capable of altering the future course of history in the Xuanhuang Realm, the vast majority of cultivators in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals were entirely oblivious.
To them, life remained peaceful, no different from usual.
Complete missions, amass contribution points, exchange them for cultivation methods and resources, and enter seclusion to cultivate.
Occasionally relax and enjoy some leisure.
That was their daily routine.
In the past, the topics cultivators gossiped about were nothing more than which young prodigy had broken through again, or who had struck dumb luck and found a technique in some sect ruins.
This year, however, one name became a constant topic on everyone's lips.
Li Fan, cultivator of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect.
He had once accurately foretold the skyrocketing price of Puxian True Leaf.
Although the vast majority of participants ended up suffering catastrophic losses—leaving them gnashing their teeth in hatred toward Li Fan—none of them harbored any doubts about his deductive prowess.
Furthermore, at some point, a crowd of cultivators had emerged who fanatically extolled Li Fan's art of deduction.
They swore up and down that Li Fan's art of deduction was miraculous and godlike, not a whit inferior to those long-famed grandmasters within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
It was as if, beyond the Puxian True Leaf affair, Li Fan had other glorious feats under his belt.
Yet when pressed for details, they kept their mouths firmly shut,
wearing expressions that said: "Believe it or not, it's up to you."
If he were merely skilled at deduction, "Li Fan, Cultivator of the Ancient Heavenly Mechanism Sect" would not have stirred such fervent discussion.
The fundamental reason was that Li Fan could lead people to fortune.
The news that He Zhenghao of the Congyun Sea was pooling contribution points and handing them over to Li Fan to invest—returning principal plus interest after one year—was known far and wide.
Although on the surface it looked like a pass-the-parcel scheme, with his mastery in deduction backing it,
it all seemed genuinely legitimate.
How arduous it was to accumulate contribution points! And how intoxicating a fifty-percent annual return was!
Unable to resist the temptation, cultivators sought out He Zhenghao in droves, eager to join the next investment plan.
The sheer number of inquiring cultivators startled even He Zhenghao, who pridefully considered himself a man of the world.
He hid all day inside Liuli Island's Island-Protecting Grand Formation, afraid to step outside.
Only when he got in touch with Li Fan and obtained his approval did he finally breathe easy.
Under Li Fan's advice, he released an announcement:
Because the number of cultivators seeking to invest was far too large and exceeded Li Fan's capacity to manage, Li Fan was forced to make a regrettable decision:
This round of investment would accept contribution points from at most five hundred cultivators.
The slots would be filled in descending order based on the amount of contribution points they were willing to contribute.
Once the news dropped, it drew curses from cultivators in their hearts.
Most people hesitated for a moment and ultimately chose to back out.
Yet a small fraction cast their vote of confidence in Li Fan with their hard-earned contribution points.
With this competitive mechanism introduced, the contribution points collected for the third round astonishingly swelled to over fifteen million.
Averaging more than thirty thousand per person.
And this was with everyone still holding back, participating with a wait-and-see attitude.
He Zhenghao's hands went numb from collecting so much wealth, his face beaming from ear to ear.
Seeing how hard he worked, Li Fan had promised him one percent of the profits as a reward.
Thus, he worked with even greater vigor,
persistently urging the investing cultivators to dig a little deeper into their pockets.
***
While Li Fan, this "grand swindler," was wildly raking in wealth,
the Empire's "Foundation Establishment Master" was not idle either.
Although the ten million contribution points gifted by Li Fan had allowed these Dharma thieves to complete their quota ahead of schedule,
to make ample preparations for eventually decoupling completely from the Xuanhuang Realm, the Dharma thieves did not halt their steps. They continued earning contribution points by various means, converting them into sundry resources and quietly shipping them back to the Empire.
On this day, a peculiar guest arrived on the island.
"I've saved up for so long; this ought to be enough.
"Coupled with this renowned Foundation Establishment Master, I will definitely break through to the Foundation Establishment realm this time.
"When that time comes, my fate will be in my own hands, not heaven's! Vast as the cultivation world may be, Han Yi can go wherever he pleases!"
A disheveled, slightly unhinged young man stood before the Foundation Establishment Master's small courtyard, muttering softly to himself.
Chapter 472