"My Dao lies in Commerce. It lies in Profit."
Jiao Xiuyuan spoke with deep feeling, "The bustling throngs of the world all rush about for profit. The Dao of Commerce flows abundantly through this world.
"Thus, I crafted tens of thousands of puppets to observe the world's gains and losses far and wide, using this as my cultivation.
"The accumulation of assets is always exceptionally swift at the very beginning. Every day brings progress by leaps and bounds, and my cultivation realm climbed step by step alongside it.
"Yet once a certain point was reached, the expansion of Thousand Li Hall slowed down.
"My cultivation had stagnated for a long time. I had originally hoped to rely on the insights gained from this colossal profit to push forward in one fell swoop and force a breakthrough. I never expected that, in the end, it would still fall just a bit short.
"As the saying goes, 'Looking at a mountain can run a horse to death'—I thought it was right before my eyes, only to find countless mountains and valleys still lying ahead."
Listening to Jiao Xiuyuan's lament, Li Fan thought back to the vast disparities he had witnessed not long ago between different Dao Integration cultivators, and further considered the chasm separating the Dao Integration stage from the Longevity realm.
He could not help but agree in his heart and nodded slightly.
Just then, Jiao Xiuyuan spoke again: "Furthermore, I have realized that for the Dao of Commerce, having reached my current stage, I am shackled at every turn and struggle to take a single step. To advance any further is truly difficult beyond measure!"
Without waiting for Li Fan to ask, he answered his own question: "Take the recent Puxian True Leaf incident, for example. Under absolutely ideal conditions, we could have earned far more. From the pure perspective of Commerce, the price of Puxian True Leaves had soared into the clouds. The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals controls the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven, where Puxian True Leaves are exceedingly abundant. They easily could have ridden the wave to reap profits alongside us, yet they had to issue a single notice that dragged everything right back to where it started.
"Claiming it was for the sake of stability—in the end, wasn't it just for their own interests..." Jiao Xiuyuan muttered.
Hearing this, Li Fan grew thoughtful. "Daoist Jiao means that profit must be extracted from others. Once you reach a certain level, further progress inevitably brings you into conflict with other parties."
"Exactly!" Jiao Xiuyuan commended. "If the other party is weak, one can naturally crush them beneath one's heel. But if the other party is an impenetrable wall, crashing into it will only leave one battered and bleeding.
"At that point, one has no choice but to skirt around the wall.
"Yet this world, after all, exists under the rule of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association. Evading their constraints is easier said than done.
"Dancing while shackled is naturally a hundred times harder."
Having heard this, Li Fan chuckled and smiled. "So that's how it is. In that case, it truly is not Fellow Daoist's fault, but the fault of this world!
"To be constrained at every turn is suffocating indeed. Why don't you join me in overthrowing the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and reshaping heaven and earth? What do you say?"
Jiao Xiuyuan fell abruptly silent.
He stared at Li Fan with a peculiar look in his eyes.
For a moment, an eerie stillness descended between the two.
"Heh, Fellow Daoist is joking."
"Haha, just a jest. Daoist Jiao didn't take it seriously, did you?"
A moment later, both of their voices rang out at the exact same time.
Exchanging a glance, they tacitly chose to move past the topic.
"Speaking of which, what would your Dao look like if taken to its absolute zenith?" Li Fan asked.
Jiao Xiuyuan pondered for a moment, then answered slowly, "The world's assets are finite in total quantity. The gainers grow ever richer, while the losers remain perpetually impoverished.
"If I continue to reap profits and the wealth of the world flows endlessly toward me, then one day...
"Perhaps my wealth alone will surpass that of all other people in the world combined."
A look of yearning showed in Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes.
Unexpectedly, Li Fan merely chuckled softly upon hearing this.
Jiao Xiuyuan raised an eyebrow. "What, does Fellow Daoist have some brilliant insight?"
"Small. Your vision is too small. I had thought Daoist Jiao was among the cleverest people under heaven, but who would have thought..." Li Fan shook his head slightly, putting on an appearance of deep regret.
"Hmm?" A glint of gloom flitted across Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes.
"If it were truly the zenith, why would the people of the world still possess any assets at all?" Li Fan smiled faintly.
"Should it not be that everything under heaven belongs to you, while all others owe you?
"Fellow Daoist must know that the total sum of worldly wealth surely has an upper limit. However..."
Li Fan's tone turned chilling: "The debt that others owe you has no ceiling whatsoever.
"Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, billions—it can accumulate infinitely without bound.
"Not only in this life, but for lifetimes upon lifetimes, down through endless generations of descendants, they must toil for eternity just to repay their debts to you!"
Li Fan's words struck Jiao Xiuyuan like a bolt of lightning.
The gloom in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by sheer shock.
"It...
"It can even be done like that?"
Li Fan's words seemed to throw open the doors to an entirely new world.
A daze flitted across Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes, but then they grew brighter and brighter, more and more excited.
Before long, it was as if he had experienced a sudden epiphany.
"Right! That's it!
"Profit in a single moment, a single lifetime, is ultimately limited.
"Yet time is infinite! If I disperse the goal I wish to achieve across the long river of time..."
Jiao Xiuyuan became engrossed in his own vision, a brilliant light dancing in his eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Li Fan, is this the future Dao that you deduced for me?"
After a long time, he finally gathered his wits and looked toward Li Fan.
Li Fan shook his head. "I wouldn't dare presume to instruct you. It was merely a glimpse of a possible future I happened upon during one of my daily deductions.
"I felt at the time that such a world might be of some benefit to Daoist Jiao's Dao, so I made note of it.
"Seeing Fellow Daoist today, I simply brought it out to share.
"As long as Daoist Jiao does not find my thoughts ridiculous, that is enough!"
Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes flickered. "Fellow Daoist's deductive abilities truly outshine past and present, to foresee such a bizarre future.
"However, since you sought me out today and even went out of your way to enlighten me..."
He looked at Li Fan with a hint of puzzlement.
Li Fan chuckled. "I said you struck it rich and turned your back on an old friend, but you wouldn't admit it.
"Could it be that you forgot my previous commission?"
Jiao Xiuyuan froze for a moment, then caught on.
"You mean..."
"With your cultivation, it is naturally impossible for you to forget. Still, with no reply for so long, I imagine there was some awkward difficulty. Yet as it happens, this matter is rather important to me. Thus, I could only thicken my skin and disturb Daoist Jiao!" Li Fan cupped his hands and spoke solemnly.
Jiao Xiuyuan looked at Li Fan, his expression shifting in an instant.
Five years ago, he had agreed to help Li Fan inquire into the identity of the ancient cultivator whom the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was excavating ancient sect ruins everywhere to find.
He had indeed looked into it.
Originally, he had not taken it very seriously, intending merely to dig up a bit of casual information to fulfill his end of the bargain.
Yet what surprised him was that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, which had always leaked like a sieve and could rarely keep any secret, had kept this matter confidential with unexpected thoroughness.
Even for him, after actively investigating for a full year or two, he had turned up nothing.
Chapter 601