Chapter 572: An Unexpected Army From The White Mist
Li Fan still hadn't determined exactly what punishment awaited those who violated a contract with the Five Elders Council.
He had absolutely no intention of finding out firsthand.
Every transaction with the Five Elders Council had left him overflowing with profit. He was practically eager for more opportunities, so why would he ever willingly break a contract?
With the Five Elders Council spy gone, “Zhou Qing'ang” was left alone at the meeting place. He casually destroyed the stone table inscribed with the message, then soared toward Congyun City.
On the journey back, however, he found himself dwelling on some unusual details from the recent negotiation.
When it came to treasures like the Truth-Binding Fruit and Man’s Dao Stardust, which were useful even to cultivators at the Dao Unity realm, the Five Elders Council only agreed to small quantities.
That, he understood.
But the Five Elders Council had also been stingy with the Samantabhadra True Boats, refusing flatly to offer more. They had even preferred to compensate with other, more precious materials rather than budge on that point.
This left Li Fan genuinely baffled.
During his earlier travels through Five Elders Council territory in a puppet body, Samantabhadra True Boats had been the sort of thing you could buy casually by the roadside. How had they become so scarce in such a short time?
What had happened?
He pondered the question over and over, finding no answer.
It wasn't until "Zhou Qing'ang" returned to the Administration Hall and happened to glance at the map of the Congyun Sea region hanging on the wall that understanding struck him.
He stared at the natural boundaries between provinces marked on the map, the entities known as the White Mist Barriers, and gradually, the pieces fell into place.
Supply and demand determine price.
Even if the Samantabhadra True Boat's intrinsic value isn't high, if the Five Elders Council is currently requisitioning them on a massive scale and creating an extreme shortage...
Then everything makes sense.
Is the Five Elders Council planning to advance through the White Mist?
Are they moving along the White Mist Barriers to invade the Myriad Immortals Alliance? Or plunging deep into the mist itself?
Even Li Fan was taken aback by the thought.
For untold years, the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist's property of consuming lifespan had kept cultivators well away from it. No one had ever thought to use the White Mist Barriers as natural navigation channels.
Within the Myriad Immortals Alliance, it was known that Samantabhadra True Leaf could mitigate the effects of the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist to some degree, but practical application had never become widespread. This was undoubtedly a major blind spot in the Myriad Immortals Alliance's thinking.
It meant a sky-darkening swarm of hostile cultivators could come pouring out of the seemingly impenetrable White Mist Barriers at any moment.
By any measure, that was a terrifying prospect.
I hope I'm just worrying over nothing. The Myriad Immortals Alliance has countless geniuses and outstanding talents. Surely they have some defense against this sort of thing. Right?
In the days that followed, "Zhou Qing'ang" kept himself deliberately and frantically busy. Visit requests he would have flatly refused before were now all accepted. Whenever he had a spare moment, he toured the various islands of the Congyun Sea. In just three or four days, he had interacted with hundreds of people across all manner of statuses and positions.
This way, even if the Five Elders Council attempted to trace his sources—the trails pointing back to the so-called Heaven-Toppling Society—the task would be nearly impossible. And even if, by some heaven-defying method, they managed to capture every last one of those people and perform soul-searches, they would find nothing.
They couldn't possibly imagine that the Myriad Immortals Alliance's top secrets had all come from Li Fan himself!
On the fifth day, "Zhou Qing'ang" arrived alone at the Myriad Vault on Youlan Island, carrying the incomplete array diagram.
In the innermost chamber, he met the contact for the transaction. The figure was clad in black, features concealed, but Li Fan could tell this was not the same cultivator as before.
"Excellent! You are a man of your word indeed, Fellow Daoist Zhou. We will not disappoint you," the black-clad cultivator said in praise.
Li Fan inquired about the previous Five Elders Council spy. The black-clad cultivator's tone turned solemn. "To complete the mission, he chose to sacrifice his life. That is our destiny, and our honor."
The man Li Fan had watched dissolve into golden light had truly perished, his Dao extinguished, his life traded for a Contract Document bearing the seals of five Heavenly Venerables. The only strange detail was that no death phenomenon had appeared in the sky, though the reason for this remained unknown.
Li Fan nodded and said nothing more, handing over the storage ring containing the encrypted jade slip.
The black-clad cultivator received it gravely. "Please wait here a moment, Fellow Daoist," he said, then left with the ring and disappeared.
Li Fan closed his eyes and waited. He wasn't truly worried about this avatar's safety.
On one hand, the golden contract forbade either party from harming the other. On the other hand, "Zhou Qing'ang" presented himself as a member of the Heaven-Toppling Society, a vast, deeply hidden organization within the Myriad Immortals Alliance. And their only point of contact, at that.
Unless the Five Elders Council was prepared to sever ties with the Heaven-Toppling Society and permanently forfeit access to Myriad Immortals Alliance intelligence, they would not move against him. This was especially true given that no investigation, however thorough, would turn up the faintest trace of the Heaven-Toppling Society. And with the Five Elders Council already at war with the Myriad Immortals Alliance, they had no reason to make another enemy.
That said, Li Fan couldn't rule out the possibility of a foolish move—some attempt to coerce him into their ranks using a method like the Truth-Binding Fruit. So he waited in a state of complete vigilance, ready to abandon the avatar at a moment's notice.
The Five Elders Council's efficiency was impressive. In barely the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the black-clad cultivator returned. Though he worked to conceal it,a hint of excitement was faintly visible in his demeanor.
"Your methods are truly astonishing. I am in awe!" he said. "This is what we promised. Please inspect it, Fellow Daoist." He extended a white stone as he spoke.
Li Fan's eyes sharpened. "This is..."
Fortunately, his experience ran deep. Searching through the memories stored in the Dao Transformation Stone, he recognized the object at once.
The Void Matrix Stone was a material with natural storage properties. Its capacity exceeded that of ordinary storage rings, and it could be absorbed and refined by a cultivator, housed within the body. It was also an essential and extraordinarily rare ingredient for forging spatial artifacts.
It was practically priceless, almost never available for purchase.
The item hadn't been on Li Fan's requested list. Clearly, it had been offered purely as a storage vessel. He gave a slight nod, opened his mouth, and swallowed the Void Matrix Stone whole.
He didn't rush to refine it. Instead, he turned his attention to the items stored within. The Five Elders Council had not shortchanged him: ten thousand Dao Comprehension Pills, three hundred Samantabhadra True Boats, three pieces of Man's Dao Stardust... Everything matched the contract exactly.
Li Fan's attention settled on a statue floating at the center of the collection, radiating five-colored light.