With the Return to Truth, Li Fan could cycle through infinite lifetimes.
In future lifetimes, he would definitely take the chance to visit organizations other than the Myriad Immortals Alliance, like the Five Elders Council.
It was only natural that they would possess methods similar to the Heart-Questioning Platform.
Thus, to avoid being exposed and executed for being a spy, obtaining a secret technique to conceal his thoughts was absolutely necessary.
Moreover, this method of hiding mental secrets was especially crucial for Li Fan, who possessed a gift like Return to Truth him.
You'd better truly be a spy, Fellow Daoist Zhou. Li Fan thought to himself, recalling his first encounter with Zhou Qing'ang.
Immediately, he sent messages to several acquaintances—He Zhenghao, Gao Yuan, Chen Ying, and others—hoping to learn more about Zhou Qing'ang.
After most of the day had passed, he gradually received replies.
Setting aside those who knew nothing about the man, the remaining responses were quite consistent.
This person was originally a rogue cultivator.
Over seventy years ago, he joined the Myriad Immortals Alliance as a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.
After advancing to the Foundation Establishment realm, he successfully passed the once-a-decade assessment and became the guardian of Tai’an Island.
Zhou Qing'ang was diligent and conscientious in his daily work and was known to be responsible and dedicated. Most of the time, he remained quietly on the island, rarely venturing out.
With this information, Li Fan grew more certain of his judgment.
Next, he needed to find a way to expose his true colors.
As someone able to infiltrate the Myriad Immortals Alliance for so many years without being found out by anyone, he was undoubtedly an extremely cautious person.
For others, finding his flaws might be somewhat difficult. But for Li Fan, who possessed Formless Killing Mechanism, it was hardly an issue. Under twenty-four-hour, year-round surveillance, as long as this person was truly a spy, it was only a matter of time before he slipped up.
Li Fan left the Tianxuan Mirror and arrived at Tai’an Island via teleportation array.
Having served as its acting guardian for several years, Li Fan was quite familiar with this island.
Above the city where the human-faced fruits lived, Li Fan met Zhou Qing'ang and stated his purpose.
"Tai’an Fruit? Fellow Daoist, your timing is truly unfortunate. The remaining fruits have all been sold; there are none left," Zhou Qing'ang shook his head apologetically.
"Ah, my luck is truly bad. I just heard about this wondrous fruit that could increase one’s lifespan for an affordable price. It’s always sold out in the Tianxuan Mirror, so I came to see if you had any stock left, Fellow Daoist," Li Fan sighed, his face full of regret.
As he spoke, he activated Formless Killing Mechanism, locking onto Zhou Qing'ang.
Formless Killing Mechanism was profoundly mysterious to begin with, and Li Fan's cultivation was a full cultivation stage higher than his.
Zhou Qing'ang naturally remained completely unaware that he had been targeted, instead very enthusiastically suggesting, "Fellow Daoist, don't be disheartened. If you truly need it, I will save one for you when the next Tai’an Fruit harvest comes."
Li Fan appeared overjoyed upon hearing this: "Many thanks, Fellow Daoist!"
As he spoke, he took out the communication spirit talisman engraved with the word “Myriad” and began adding him as a friend.
"I currently serve as an array maintenance technician in the Strategy Array Hall. We should keep in touch and visit each other more in the future!" Li Fan said.
"Are you familiar with He Zhenghao, the guardian of Liuli Island? I have close ties to him."
Zhou Qing'ang's eyes lit up, immediately accepting the friend request.
"Haha, my relationship with Fellow Daoist He is pretty good too. So we're all acquaintances!"
Li Fan continued chatting with Zhou Qing'ang, following his lead.
Only then did he return to Myriad Immortals Island.
Inside the Tianxuan Mirror, Li Fan directly transferred one hundred contribution points to Zhou Qing'ang.
"Fellow Daoist Zhou, I've sent the contribution points to you first. Please remember to save the Tai’an Fruit for me."
Zhou Qing'ang's reply came quickly.
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist. Even if I fail to complete the annual quota, I'll save one for you!"
"I appreciate your straightforwardness, Fellow Daoist Zhou!"
While praising him, Li Fan observed Zhou Qing'ang's every move through heaven and earth’s perspective. However, there were no abnormalities in his expression throughout their conversation.
But it was fine; Li Fan didn't expect to find flaws so quickly. With Formless Killing Mechanism, he would eventually catch Zhou Qing'ang when he inevitably slipped up someday.
Setting this matter aside for now, Li Fan transferred fifteen thousand contribution points to He Zhenghao and began properly screening through merit tasks.
He planned to raise his permission level first, then see if he could find techniques related to multitasking. This was quite important to him.
Back in his twelfth life, he had encountered the problem of "insufficient brainpower."
As Brightmoon Palace’s business gradually expanded, Li Fan had to juggle the array studies of both his true self and avatar while simultaneously monitoring nearly a hundred borrowers.
Although he only allocated a sliver of mental energy to most tasks, once he had too many external consciousness threads active, his true self was inevitably affected.
This led to occasional brief mental pauses and a decline in his normal thinking speed. Simply put, Li Fan sometimes felt his brain "stuttering."
There were two ways to solve this problem. One was to increase his total mental strength. The other was to improve his multi-thread computational ability. In other words, get better at multitasking.
Li Fan's divine sense strength was already quite strong compared to others at the same cultivation realm. While at the late-stage Foundation Establishment realm, it rivaled the late-stage Golden Core realm, a full realm higher than typical cultivators.
Having discovered that he could enhance his divine sense by entering the Fallen Immortal Realm and absorbing the shells of those he possessed, he temporarily didn't need to seek other ways to increase his divine sense strength.
Therefore, what Li Fan currently needed to do was work on his shortcomings. He had to find a technique that would improve his multitasking capabilities.
Although Li Fan possessed vast wealth during his twelfth life, such techniques unfortunately couldn’t be found within the Tianxuan Mirror. He could only reluctantly make do.
But in this life, having joined the Myriad Immortals Alliance system, he naturally wanted to take this opportunity to find techniques that could enhance multi-thread computational ability.
Li Fan had previously done a quick search but hadn't found any suitable techniques. However, he believed that as his permission level increased, satisfactory results would eventually appear.
As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, most of the merit missions available to Li Fan awarded Grade D merit.
Occasionally, one or two Grade C- missions appeared, all marked with high-risk warnings. It was these high-risk missions that Li Fan was interested in.
The so-called high risk was actually relative to the individual. For ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators within the Myriad Immortals Alliance, Golden Core missions clearly exceeded their capabilities. But for Li Fan, who possessed numerous extraordinary techniques, the actual risk of these missions wasn't nearly as high as their labels suggested.
Take one assignment, for example: join a squad from the Martial Hall to clear out exotic beasts from Wanlai Island in the Congyun Sea.
According to the mission brief, these creatures fed on sound itself. They reproduced at an alarming rate, moving in massive, swarming packs that had to be culled regularly to keep their numbers in check.
Though they plagued the region in overwhelming numbers, each individual beast possessed relatively weak combat power—roughly equivalent to early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators at best.
This mission was practically tailor-made for Li Fan.