Through his countless puppets, Jiao Xiuyuan alone sustained the Thousand Li Hall—a vast commercial empire stretching across the entire Myriad Immortals Alliance.
His presence reached into ancient ruins and desolate wildernesses where few dared to tread, and he wielded enough influence to stir up storms across the Xuanhuang World. It was as though he had entered the Dao through commerce itself.
Yet the man's fortune seemed somehow lacking. He always claimed he never made a losing deal, but in Li Fan's experience, Jiao Xiuyuan's ventures had a tendency to end in the red.
When they first met, Jiao Xiuyuan had hoarded a massive quantity of Form-Concealing Talismans, only for their price to collapse in the wake of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.
Later, he had painstakingly excavated several Mini Medicine King Cauldrons. Had he held on until the true Medicine King Cauldron returned, he would have reaped enormous profits. But as though fate itself had conspired against him, he sold them all far too early and for a pittance.
Perhaps he truly never takes a direct loss. Li Fan mused. He just always seems to miss the opportunities for vast wealth by a hair's breadth. Even in the previous life, when we cornered the Spirit Mist Grass market together, a moment of greed made him pull out too slowly, and a colossal fortune slipped through his fingers in an instant. Only in this life did he truly profit handsomely. I wonder if anything will change in him now.
While pondering this, Li Fan carefully examined the objects arranged on Jiao Xiuyuan's shelves, hoping to score another lucky find like the Mini Medicine King Cauldron.
The shelves held a chaotic assortment of talismans, array diagrams, elixirs, and everything else one could imagine.
Li Fan focused on the older-looking items. Most were severely damaged, bearing the heavy marks of history. There were scroll paintings, ornaments, and unrecognizable artifacts that no longer held even a trace of spiritual qi.
His gaze swept over them one by one, then stopped on an ancient painting.
His expression grew solemn. He lifted the scroll from the shelf and slowly unrolled it. It wasn't the painting's artistry that was special, but its subject matter.
The painting depicted a majestic and magnificent mountain gate.
Heaven and earth merged into a single hue.
Dozens of cultivators stood upon the clouds, pointing into the distance, while the towering architecture atop the mountain peak loomed faintly through the sea of clouds below.
Phoenixes and flood dragons wove through the mountain ranges. On the plaza at the mountain's base, hundreds or perhaps thousands of youthful disciples gazed up at the cultivators overhead, their faces bright with excitement and envy.
It was a truly vibrant scene of a thriving sect.
But Li Fan had seen this sect before, and what he had witnessed bore no resemblance to this prosperity.
Corpses had littered the ground, rivers of blood had flowed, and the mountain gate had lain in ruins. It was the very vision he had seen at the bottom of the Abyssal Chasm back in Great Xuan, after the thick fog dissipated. The place where the words carved into the cliff face, “the path to immortality is no more,” had shaken him to his core.
He understood now that this was the tragic aftermath of a sect destroyed from within. After the Great Reformation descended and more than one person could no longer cultivate the same technique, the disciples had turned on each other.
Which sect was this? And why did I see it back then?
After all, the scenery each person witnessed at the bottom of the Abyssal Chasm was different. He might have encountered this ruined sect by pure coincidence, but Li Fan was more inclined to believe that some form of guidance had been at work.
He carefully stored the painting scroll, then circled the area once more. Finding nothing else of value, he made his way over to Jiao Xiuyuan.
"Fellow Daoist Jiao? Fellow Daoist Jiao!"
He called out a few times for show. When there was still no reaction, he reached out and began patting down the figure. It wasn't due to any peculiar preference on his part; he simply wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to study Jiao Xiuyuan's Myriad Puppets Dao.
Arcana True Spirit Transformation was already a world-shaking divine art, but it carried one minor flaw: derived from the Heaven-Swapping Art, it could only maintain a single avatar at a time. If he could synthesize it with the Myriad Puppets Dao and refine it further...
Countless avatars, indistinguishable from the real thing. Li Fan mused in his mind, even as his hands moved without hesitation.
It's almost exactly like a real person. Even probing with divine sense, it's hard to tell the difference. The control core seems to be located in the head, a blue light similar to that of a Dao Transformation Stone. And after death, the puppets turn a withered, wood-like yellow. Could it be that Jiao Xiuyuan's puppets are all made from some kind of wood?
Li Fan continued his examination, weaving what he observed together with his existing knowledge. After considerable contemplation, he felt the first stirrings of genuine insight.
He was just beginning to feel pleased with his gains when he noticed Jiao Xiuyuan's eyelids tremble slightly.
His heart lurched. Li Fan stepped back instantly. A moment later, the light returned to Jiao Xiuyuan's previously dull eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Jiao, you're awake?" Li Fan asked, his voice carefully arranged into an expression of great concern.
"Hmm? Fellow Daoist Li Fan? What are you doing here?" Jiao Xiuyuan looked at him with open suspicion.
Li Fan wanted to explain everything that had happened during the investigation, but he had signed a confidentiality agreement and found himself unable to speak freely. He settled for the next best thing, telling Jiao Xiuyuan he had come to escape the pressing crowd outside.
"I lost contact with this puppet not long after I sensed Lu Xichan's arrival. I knew then that something serious had really happened. And so it has." Jiao Xiuyuan glanced at Li Fan, clearly guessing the reason for his evasion. "A confidentiality agreement, huh... No wonder things aren't too calm over in Tianquan and Tianyu Province either."
He narrowed his eyes, about to sink into deeper thought, when his gaze swept inadvertently across his own shop. His expression changed dramatically.
In a flash, he was at the shelves. After checking them over, he cried out in dismay. "Why does it seem like a painting is missing? I dug that out from a pile of junk with great effort!"
Li Fan was just about to say the painting was with him when the puppet before him exploded with a bang. It wasn't gore that flew everywhere, but a shower of wood splinters.
"Fellow Daoist Jiao!" Li Fan stood momentarily stunned by the sudden turn.
"I'm fine!" At once, another puppet crawled out from beneath the counter. Looking thoroughly annoyed, it pulled out a broom and began sweeping up the mess.
"What happened just now?" Li Fan couldn't help but ask.
"A business has gone sour, so it's hard to keep it running." Jiao Xiuyuan offered nothing more, only shaking his head with a sigh. "Truly bizarre. How could a perfectly good painting just vanish? Who has the gall to steal from me, of all people?"
"Ah, Fellow Daoist Jiao, I forgot to mention earlier." Li Fan's voice reached him just then. "While you were unconscious, I felt that painting looked quite fine, so I... took the liberty of pocketing it."