The colossal stone figure extended its right hand, and Li Fan flew up to its palm.
The giant held him there, presenting him before the assembled crowd.
Li Fan swept his gaze across the dense mass of cultivators, his expression solemn. "Not long ago, through a senior's favor, I was granted the position of Acting Island Master and charged with rebuilding the Congyun Immortal City.
"By nature, I am a man who prefers leisure. To suddenly find myself carrying this heavy responsibility is no small thing.
"Yet I dare not fail the trust placed in me by the Immortal Alliance, nor by that senior. And so I pledged a military vow before Lord Jinglun—to rebuild the immortal city within six months.
"The time is short and the task is immense. But I believe that with the united effort of every cultivator in the Congyun Sea, we will see it through without fail.
"It is truly unheard of for an immortal city of an entire province to be stolen away!" Li Fan pointed down at the vast cavity below. "Every day this ruin stands is a stain on our honor as cultivators of the Congyun Sea!
"I beseech you all to join me in washing away this shame!"
He bowed deeply to the assembly.
The cultivators bowed in return, some moved by genuine feeling, others by necessity.
When Li Fan straightened, his voice rang out clearly.
"On the day the immortal city is rebuilt, I will stand here again to reward merit, punish fault, and to celebrate alongside you all!"
The words carried across the sea and took a long time to fade.
The crowd watched him, their expressions varied.
"Gao Yuan!"
After a beat of silence, Li Fan called out.
"Here!" Gao Yuan shot forward, face bright with barely contained delight.
"Announce the personnel appointments for the reconstruction project on my behalf," Li Fan instructed.
"Yes!"
Gao Yuan cast a sweeping, triumphant glance across the crowd, cleared his throat, produced a scroll from his storage ring, and filled his voice with spiritual power before reading at full volume.
"He Zhenghao, guardian of Liuli Island—appointed Chief Inspector, to oversee and supervise all matters of resource requisition and expenditure during the reconstruction of the immortal city."
"Pei Tuo, guardian of Haitong Island—appointed Chief Commander, to hold overall command of all security matters during the reconstruction of the immortal city."
"Zhou Qing'ang, guardian of Tai'an Island—appointed Chief Coordinator, to facilitate communication and coordination between all departments during the reconstruction of the immortal city."
As each name was read, the expressions of the assembled cultivators grew more complicated by the moment.
They had quickly noticed that every appointee was among those who had stepped forward to greet Li Fan at the start of the ceremony.
The meaning was plain enough.
So they had known from the very beginning that Li Fan would become Acting Island Master, and had wasted no time pledging their allegiance.
And Li Fan himself made no effort to conceal his favoritism; he simply appointed his own people and left it at that.
Consider He Zhenghao, Pei Tuo, Zhou Qing'ang. Their cultivation had reached the peak of Golden Core at best, yet they now outranked even Nascent Soul cultivators. Was that truly fitting?
Resentment stirred, but it came tangled with sharp regret. Why hadn't they been quicker to move?
When the list concluded, Gao Yuan returned to the crowd.
Li Fan smiled faintly.
"The reconstruction of the immortal city is a task of monumental scale. My arrangements are inevitably imperfect. The Congyun Sea has no shortage of talent, and oversights are unavoidable. Therefore, I am appointing Gao Yuan as Chief Attendant. Any who wish to lend their strength to the rebuilding effort may report to him."
Those who had been quietly cursing their own hesitation perked up at once.
"Everyone," Li Fan continued, "the Five Elders Council's surprise assault dealt the Congyun Sea a devastating blow. The Administration Hall, the Strategy Array Hall, the Martial Hall and others were nearly wiped out entirely. Countless positions now stand vacant. The Congyun Sea can barely maintain normal operations."
He paused.
With a soft sigh, his gaze moved across the gathered cultivators, his voice expectant.
"I hope that through your collective efforts, the former glory of the Congyun Sea may soon be restored."
Whether the Congyun Sea had ever possessed such glory was another matter entirely.
But Li Fan's meaning was unmistakable: the Five Elders Council's assault had left countless posts empty and his current hundred-odd followers were nowhere near enough to fill them. If anyone had the ability, now was the time to step forward. An opening like this would not come again. Once the immortal city was completed in half a year, it would be too late.
Realization rippled through the crowd.
True, all these positions were for now "nominal posts" created for the purpose of reconstruction.
Titles like Chief Commander and Chief Inspector sounded impressive, but their authority rested entirely on authorization granted by Li Fan as Acting Island Master. Once the immortal city was rebuilt, those titles would shed their value.
The real prize was what Li Fan had called "rewarding merit and punishing faults." If they could earn enough merit during the reconstruction and secure an official posting within the Myriad Immortals Alliance system...
At that thought, their hearts beat faster.
The Alliance's entrance recruitment examination was notoriously grueling, and promotion after joining was harder still.
Island Master Li was right. This was an opportunity that came once in a thousand years.
Many eyes drifted quietly toward Gao Yuan, their minds already scheming over how best to approach Li Fan's favored subordinate.
Li Fan offered a few more words of encouragement, then declared the ceremony concluded, announcing that reconstruction would officially begin the following day.
Before the crowd had even begun to disperse, Tantai Can gave no parting word to Li Fan and simply piloted his flying boat away, his expression dark and tight.
Most of the cultivators were too absorbed in their own ambitions to notice.
Li Fan watched the retreating craft and sneered inwardly.
As most of those present today had already guessed, Shen Yuzi, Jingxuan, Guangwu, Huangfu Song, and the others had all come because Li Fan had paved the way with contribution points.
But this rising star of the Tantai family had no such connection to him, and even harbored concealed hostility. Contribution points would not have moved him.
The reason Tantai Can had come to offer his congratulations was due to the contract he had been forced to sign with Jiao Xiuyuan during the Samantabhadra True Leaf incident, which bound him to fulfill three requests within his capability.
That obligation had left him no room to refuse, even if he had been working quietly against Li Fan in other ways.
A prodigy of his standing, used to looking down at the world from a great height, was outmaneuvered by Li Fan once again. He would not be explaining that humiliation to anyone. To those watching, his contradictory behavior simply looked strange.
As for their relationship deteriorating further, Li Fan could not care less. He would be discarding this identity as a Heavenly Mechanisms Sect cultivator sooner or later. When you already owe a mountain of debt, a few more pebbles hardly register. The only thing that mattered now was building the Congyun Immortal City.
He had used the situation to win over supporters and solve the problem of having no one to work with. But another trouble remained, one just as dangerous.
He recalled Jiao Xiuyuan's words: "The quantities on the materials list are correct. They're enough to build a floating immortal city successfully. But that's only if there are zero mistakes. In actual construction, losses from errors are practically inevitable. Some things aren't too difficult to procure. I can sell them to you through certain channels at a low price. But some special materials are strictly controlled by the Myriad Immortals Alliance. You can't buy them even with contribution points."