The cultivators inside the Martial Practice Hall looked at one another, suddenly finding themselves in an awkward spot.
Admittedly, by the rules, any cultivator belonging to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals who managed to kill a member of the Five Elders Association could apply to the Martial Practice Hall for a bounty.
Slaying four hostile Nascent Soul cultivators would be hailed as a great service in any province.
Yet this lord before them had been far too ruthless—not a scrap remained of the four Five Elders Association cultivators.
To say nothing of valuable corpse remnants or lingering souls.
While the battle achievement was dazzling, its practical value was not quite so immense.
Refusing the reward would taint their reputation once word spread.
Granting the reward, however, posed another problem: the Congyun Sea Martial Practice Hall's annual budget was never plentiful to begin with.
If Li Fan were allowed to walk away with such a massive sum, how were the brothers supposed to get through the rest of the year?
Besides, Master Li Fan did not look like someone lacking contribution points by any stretch.
Even if the Martial Practice Hall bled profusely, it might not satisfy his appetite.
More importantly, with his current resounding fame, forceful suppression or coercing him to "voluntarily" waive the reward was completely out of the question.
Thus, coming up with an arrangement that satisfied both sides was indeed a matter warranting deliberation.
Li Fan put on an unhurried, patient demeanor, looking as though he would simply linger indefinitely unless a suitable outcome was reached.
The Martial Practice Hall cultivators furrowed their brows, conferring among themselves via secret transmissions.
After several rounds of testing and negotiation, both parties finally arrived at a mutually delightful resolution.
By virtue of this extraordinary feat, Li Fan was appointed as a Martial Practice Hall Special Executive, officially entering the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' establishment.
At the same time, the entire reward was issued in the form of merits.
According to the estimates of the Martial Practice Hall, this was sufficient to raise Li Fan's clearance level straight to Yan-16 in one leap.
One had to realize that an ordinary in-system cultivator would need at least thirty-four years of diligent, dedicated toil to reach this rank.
Yet Li Fan had ascended in a single bound.
Contribution points no longer mattered to Li Fan in the slightest, so settling in merits was an outcome he could not have wished for more.
With that, Li Fan gladly accepted.
Next came cooperating with the Martial Practice Hall to complete the corresponding formalities.
The Martial Practice Hall submitted the application, and the Administration Hall approved it at lightning speed.
After going through the motions once more on the White Jade Heart-Interrogation Platform, Li Fan successfully became a member of the Congyun Sea Martial Practice Hall.
Then came the distribution of merits.
By the time Li Fan departed from the central core of Wanxian Island, besides the halo of an "Ancient Heavenly Mechanism Sect Cultivator skilled in divination," he possessed an additional identity: "Alliance establishment member, clearance Yan-16."
"Bathed in the public eye, bolstered by official status—even if someone wants to move against me, they can no longer do so out in the open."
Walking along the street, Li Fan felt significantly safer.
Having cycled through several lifetimes within the Alliance, Li Fan deeply understood the paramount importance of order and rules in the present Alliance.
Even a Dao Integration Immortal Venerable had to pay a steep price for breaking the rules and disrupting order.
Guan Xingxiu, who had been stripped of a realm of cultivation and exiled to Lanlin Province in the previous life, was a living testament to that.
Possessing an official establishment identity was undoubtedly an added protective talisman.
Even so, in order to temporarily extricate himself from the uproar caused by slaying four Nascent Souls, Li Fan headed straight into secluded cultivation within the Heavenly Profound Mirror to lay low.
A Golden Core slaying Nascent Souls—and against four opponents single-handedly, no less.
Whoever accomplished such a feat, regardless of the era, would be hailed as an undeniable prodigy.
The explosive nature of the topic was self-evident.
Without any need for deliberate fanning of the flames, cultivators discussed and spread the astonishing tale almost entirely on their own.
There were skeptics, there were the curious, and there were those itching for a fight, eager to test their mettle against Li Fan.
Yet when all these people holding differing opinions learned that Li Fan had relied entirely on lethal implements purchased from the Heavenly Profound Mirror to kill the four Nascent Souls, their reactions proved remarkably unanimous.
"Money truly is a bloody wonderful thing!"
Indeed, for some reason, the "truth" of the killings—which should have possessed a high security clearance and been known only to the Martial Practice Hall—spread at a pace that was not a whit slower.
Practically hand in hand with Li Fan's exploits, it swept through every province across the Alliance.
Regardless of what cultivators thought of Li Fan as an individual, in view of his proven ability to lead everyone to riches, the number of people coming to consult He Zhenghao exploded once more.
As a consequence, Daoist He even gained a measure of fame within the cultivator community.
Yet to all these winds and rains in the outside world, Li Fan paid no heed.
Temporarily severing all means of communication with the outside, he focused purely on rigorous cultivation within the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Time flew like a white steed flashing past a crevice, and in the blink of an eye, Anchor Year 9 drew to its close.
With the eight-month window since his last entry into the Fallen Immortal Realm now past, Li Fan felt a stir of intuition and snapped awake from seclusion.
"Mr. Bai, the Creation Furnace Technique..."
A glimmer of anticipation flickered across Li Fan's eyes. After making slight preparations, he chanted softly, "Heavenly Venerable of Fortune and Xuanhuang!"
A heartbeat later, the scenery before him blurred once again.
By the time his senses cleared, he had already returned to the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Upon entering the realm, the first thing he did was not observe his current circumstances, but rather recall the contents of the Creation Furnace Technique imparted by Mr. Bai.
The exquisite, peerless words instantly surfaced in his mind, and once more he beheld the grand Dao profound skill and supreme orthodox method.
Li Fan became thoroughly enraptured once again, utterly unable to tear himself away.
"Splendid!"
He marveled aloud yet again.
"Little Black, you're finally awake?"
Right then, an untimely voice pulled him out of that marvelous state.
It was none other than Xu Ke's somewhat goofy voice.
A flare of annoyance rising within him, Li Fan swiped a claw right across Xu Ke's head beneath him.
Scanning the surrounding environment, he found the landscape quite different from the scenery of the Beast Taming Sect from before.
"What happened after I fell asleep?" Li Fan asked Xu Ke via mental transmission.
"Huh? Little Black, you can finally talk?" Xu Ke asked with a delighted, oblivious beam.
After taking a few more clawings, Xu Ke finally recounted the whole story from start to finish amid his yelps of pain.
As it turned out, ever since Li Fan swallowed Song Yang's Ink Immortal Tiger into his belly and slipped into a deep, digestive slumber, Xu Ke had followed the guidance of the jade plaque Lu Ya gave him and smoothly met up with Senior Brother Lu Ya and Di Sanmo, the beast of wisdom, who were in the middle of conferring over matters.
Upon seeing the slumbering Heavenly Destiny Profound Bird, Di Sanmo had uttered several cryptic, inscrutable remarks.
Afterward, he had placed a single white hair into Li Fan's body.
Consequently, Li Fan had fallen into an even deeper slumber atop Xu Ke's head.
He had remained that way until now, only just waking up.
"You are saying I spent three full years in slumber?"
"And you came to this canyon pocket world just to search for a creature called the Realm-Rifting Whale?"
Li Fan asked in a grave tone.
"That's right! Oh, Little Black, you have no idea—even though that big fellow is enormous, it usually hides in the clouds and can conceal its form."
"Ordinary search arts and magical treasures don't work on it at all. It's so hard to find!" Xu Ke lamented.
Chapter 477