The true nature of the war remained beyond Li Fan's current understanding.
The dark clouds hanging over everyone gradually dispersed, and the conscripted cultivators returned to their homes.
Thus ended the great conflict that had raged for more than eight months, leaving behind an impression as faint and insubstantial as a dream. It was as though it had never happened at all.
Only when someone mentioned the names of cultivators who would never return did fleeting memories of that brutal war resurface.
Li Fan naturally had acquaintances who had fallen in battle as well, not to mention Chen Ying from the Medicine Hall, who had died early on in the Five Elders Council's surprise attack.
Jiang Zhengji and Du Xingchang of the Congyun Sea Martial Hall had both perished.
The Strategy Array Hall had suffered heavy losses. Of the three who had been conscripted, Gong Boyu and another Nascent Soul array master, Mu Bowen, were caught in the aftermath of a clash between Spirit Transformation powerhouses and failed to escape. Only Zhang Zhiliang survived.
As for the countless other cultivators stationed across Myriad Immortals Island, those Li Fan had perhaps met once before they vanished in this war, their number was beyond reckoning.
The savagery of the Tianling Province battle was plain to see.
And yet, this world had never lacked cultivators willing to gamble everything.
With a single announcement issued through the Tianxuan Mirror, the war and the deaths it had brought were swiftly cast aside.
For the next three years, every cultivator would be allowed to purchase techniques at a thirty-percent discount.
Each person was limited to one, non-transferable purchase.
Once the news broke, those cultivators who had been secretly grieving suddenly perked up, their spirits lifting.
Those who had been just short of enough contribution points and could now afford their desired techniques after the discount naturally rushed to acquire their long-coveted techniques, delightedly beginning their cultivation.
Those who were still significantly short but would just barely be able to scrape together enough in the next three years threw themselves into completing missions and accumulating contribution points.
Finally, there were those cultivators with hardly any contribution points left, who had no hope no matter how hard they worked over the next three years.
For them, methods involving "loans" or "overnight wealth" became their lifelines.
As the most famous get-rich-quick scheme in the Congyun Sea, the fish betting game attracted several times more participants than usual at the end of Anchor Year 16.
The sky above the island was densely packed with people crowding in to witness the spectacle.
Li Fan was naturally among them.
He clearly remembered that this year's champion fish was a white pomfret.
Although he had sufficient contribution points, Li Fan wouldn't pass up any opportunity for more wealth.
He selected his target and placed his bet.
The twenty-seven-day observation period flashed by.
Soon, it was time for the lake waters to surge skyward and the grand winner to be determined.
Most cultivators had red-rimmed eyes and tense expressions as they stared fixedly at the countless fish competing below in the lake waters, not daring to make a sound.
The final outcome surprised Li Fan.
This year's champion fish wasn't the white pomfret he remembered. Instead, it was a golden, spirited spearfish.
"I won! I won!"
Amid the rising and falling sighs and curses of the cultivators, one extremely excited shout stood out conspicuously.
Following the sound, Li Fan spotted a young cultivator with messy hair and tattered clothes, his face flushed crimson with excitement.
"First prize! I won! First prize!"
He continued screaming wildly, as if afraid others might fail to notice.
Ignoring the numerous murderous glares directed his way, the young cultivator threw his head back and laughed, appearing completely deranged.
"Holy shit, isn't that Han Yi? I heard some Foundation Establishment Master swindled him out of everything he owned a few years ago, leaving him utterly broke. Never thought his luck would turn today and he'd hit the jackpot!"
"What freaking insane luck!"
"Why can't this kind of good fortune ever come to me? I just lost all the hundreds of contribution points I painstakingly saved up!"
"With so many participants this time, and it being the first place... Winner takes all, and it's the year-end too, so they're clearing out the usual prize pool..."
"Damn, the final reward must be at least a million contribution points, probably more!"
After some quick mental calculations, the looks that the cultivators gave Han Yi began to change.
Finally sensing something amiss amid his jackpot euphoria, Han Yi grew tense and uneasy under the increasing number of stares.
Fortunately, the rules of the fish betting game still held sway. In public, under everyone's watchful eyes, the winner's safety was still guaranteed.
If killing for treasure could happen so easily and the rules were so readily trampled, then it was only natural that fewer and fewer cultivators would be willing to take part in the fish betting game in the future.
Better to use this opportunity for massive publicity, attracting more cultivators to join later.
A small, desperate Foundation Establishment cultivator with his back against the wall, staking everything for a complete reversal of his fortune.
With this one lucky break, he could now climb to the peak of life, with prospects of reaching Nascent Soul and even Spirit Transformation.
What promotional message could be more attractive than this living example?
After exchanging glances, several organizers of the fish betting game quickly brought Han Yi to the center of the crowd.
After some calculations, they transferred the enormous reward totaling 1.56 million contribution points directly to Han Yi on the spot.
Upon receiving the reward, Han Yi no longer showed excitement.
Instead, he seemed somewhat dazed, as if unable to believe all this was real.
Meanwhile, the greed shining in the eyes of the surrounding cultivators grew increasingly unnerving.
For the sake of the lucky winner's personal safety, several organizers of the fish betting game decided to personally escort Han Yi back to Myriad Immortals Island.
Those cultivators who had lost all their stakes to Han Yi trailed behind them, as though unwilling to let their contribution points go.
Soon, Han Yi departed from these waters while surrounded by the crowd, leaving behind the champion spearhead fish, who was quietly digesting the essential qi of the other competing fishes... and Li Fan.
Watching the aura of the champion fish growing stronger, Li Fan couldn't help but fall deep into thought.
Why was the outcome in this life different from what I experienced?
Where did the variable come from?
Despite having narrowly missed the grand prize, Li Fan didn't feel much emotional turmoil.
Besides the fish betting game, he had numerous other methods to rake in large amounts of contribution points.
The reason behind the different outcome was what truly interested him.
Logically speaking, aside from slightly more participants, nothing else should have affected the result of the fish betting game.
Li Fan stood in place, pondering for a long time, but couldn't arrive at a reliable answer.
He resorted to using the Unity of Dao Transformation and Mind, replaying the scene of the recent fish betting game repeatedly in his mind.
Slowly, Li Fan began to notice a clue.
The "absence of major variables" that Li Fan perceived was from the perspective of a cultivator.
But from the viewpoint of the countless fish participating in the fish betting game, variables existed everywhere.
It might be the disturbance in water currents caused by some object a cultivator casually discarded.
It might be a certain fish altering its course after being startled by a cultivator's aura.
Because the fish were too weak, and the cultivators too powerful, weakness meant they couldn't remain unaffected—they could only drift with the currents, manipulated by so-called variables.
Li Fan felt a glimmer of insight.