Upon hearing his target was only at the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm, Jiao Xiuyuan immediately relaxed.
He gave his chest a confident thump. “Relax. A Qi Refinement nobody like that? I’ll dig up everything there is to know about him. But as for the price...”
Li Fan smiled. "Since it's just a Qi Refinement nobody, the cost shouldn't be too high, I presume."
Jiao Xiuyuan wished he could slap himself. He chuckled awkwardly. "There's always some risk in this line of work. How about... this number?"
He lifted eight fingers.
"Forty contribution points. Not a point more," Li Fan shook his head.
"Ah, you drive a hard bargain! Surely sixty is reasonable? Otherwise, it's another loss for me!" Jiao Xiuyuan cried out in distress.
Li Fan turned to leave.
"Wait, wait!" Jiao Xiuyuan hurriedly stopped him. "Fifty points. Truly, I can't go any lower," he said with a pained expression.
Only then did Li Fan halt.
"An advance of ten contribution points, please," Jiao Xiuyuan said, handing Li Fan a communication spirit talisman. "I'll notify you through this talisman once I have results."
Li Fan accepted the talisman and handed Jiao Xiuyuan a mid-grade spirit stone.
Instead of leaving immediately, he glanced around at the other items for sale in the room.
Seeing a big spender had arrived today, Jiao Xiuyuan grew even more enthusiastic. "What else would you like?"
"Do you sell techniques? Preferably escape arts, or something with effects similar to a Form-Concealing Talisman," Li Fan asked.
Jiao Xiuyuan's expression stiffened instantly.
"Heh, are you making fun of me? Perhaps you can take a look at something else instead. How about this set of Labyrinth Array Diagrams? Absolutely top-tier among the finest products. Once activated, it can trap a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator for an entire day.
"This set of Frost Talisman Swords is also excellent, ideal for ambushes... Ah, don't leave!"
***
After leaving the Thousand Li Hall, Li Fan returned to the Tianxuan Mirror.
He planned to first cultivate the Nether Spirit Illusion Art to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm. Then, once the Blue Flame phantom spirit was completely stable, he could release it to kill enemies.
With the Assisted Cultivation Mode activated, Li Fan entered seclusion once again.
One month later, in the eastern region of the Congyun Sea, near Yanjing Island.
Deep beneath the sea, Li Fan retracted his aura while trailing behind a school of Crimsonflame Sharks.
The school consisted of over a dozen sharks, hunting a solitary Emberback Whale.
The Emberback Whale was massive, and its hide was hard as rock from years of feeding on seabed flame crystals.
The Crimsonflame Sharks had razor-sharp teeth, moved swiftly, and coordinated flawlessly.
Though they couldn't inflict significant damage immediately, they slowly wore down the whale's vital essence like a dull knife slicing flesh.
The whale attempted several times to break through the shark school's encirclement but failed each time.
Gradually, its resistance grew weaker.
Watching this scene, Li Fan knew the time was right.
The Blue Flame phantom spirit manifested.
It then transformed into a thin streak of blue light, flashing between the dozen-plus Crimsonflame Sharks and the Emberback Whale in an instant.
A moment later, it returned to Li Fan's consciousness.
The Crimsonflame Sharks and the Emberback Whale abruptly froze.
Then, a chilly aura surged from within them, turning them into solid ice from the inside out.
In the blink of an eye, eerie frozen sculptures appeared on the sea floor.
Their expressions and postures were exactly as they had been in life, but all vital aura had long since vanished.
The Blue Flame phantom spirit’s power is truly remarkable. Li Fan mused inwardly. These sea beasts are mostly at the Qi Refinement realm, with thick hides that make them difficult to hunt through conventional means. Yet after a divine sense attack from the phantom spirit, they become nothing more than lambs to the slaughter, utterly incapable of resistance.
He nodded, satisfied with this first test of the phantom spirit’s offensive capabilities.
Not long ago, he had finally broken through to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm of the Nether Spirit Illusion Art. It had taken him more than twenty days.
To test the phantom spirit’s power and earn some contribution points along the way, he had taken on this mission titled: Hunt Crimsonflame Sharks and Retrieve their Beast Cores.
Each core was worth five contribution points, totaling around sixty or so. Combined with materials from the Emberback Whales, this trip would yield over eighty contribution points.
In the past, he had earned contribution points in the thousands each time. Such a meager amount now hardly stirred any emotion in him. But at least it was better than nothing.
As Li Fan prepared to move forward and harvest the Crimsonflame Sharks’ cores, he suddenly sensed an enormous presence approaching from the depths below.
His expression changed. Ignoring the nearby cores, he swiftly retreated.
A deep brown, ferocious-looking leviathan emerged from the shadows of the seabed. Its forehead bulged grotesquely, and it looked neither fully dragon nor fully fish.
It opened its massive jaws and swallowed all dozen-plus Crimsonflame Sharks and the Emberback Whale in one gulp.
With a powerful flick of its tail, the beast circled once, then swam off in a specific direction.
Li Fan, who had barely avoided the creature, could only watch helplessly as his prey was stolen.
Rage surged within him. How was he supposed to tolerate this?
But soon, the Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Sutra operated, calming him slightly.
Wait... wasn’t this the same exotic beast that had destroyed the Spirit Mist Grass island?
Li Fan paused as he recalled something.
While accepting the mission task to hunt Crimsonflame Sharks, he had noticed another bounty posting at the corner of his eye.
Because it was somewhat related to him, he had examined it carefully.
It turned out that those who had speculated on the Spirit Mist Grass prices had nearly all suffered massive losses, and many were left bankrupt.
The frustration and resentment churning within them was so intense that it disrupted their cultivation.
Yet they dared not confront Eminence Qingmu Huasheng or the Myriad Immortals Alliance. So, they vented their fury on the exotic beast that had destroyed the Spirit Mist Grass island instead.
According to witnesses, the attacker was a Dracowhale, one roughly at the Foundation Establishment level.
The island’s guardian was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But the Dracowhale’s colossal size rendered the guardian’s attacks utterly ineffective.
Ignoring the guardian entirely, the Dracowhale shattered the island protection array, rampaged across the island, and devoured most of the Spirit Mist Grass.
Only afterward did a Golden Core cultivator from the Myriad Immortals Alliance arrive belatedly.
After taking a blow from the Golden Core cultivator, the Dracowhale was severely wounded, but somehow survived and fled back into the deep sea.
The Congyun Sea was vast. Those eager to kill the Dracowhale for revenge searched for over ten days without success.
In desperation, they could only pool together what few remaining contribution points they had left and jointly posted a bounty.
Slay the Dracowhale, and get a reward of two thousand contribution points.
Since even Foundation Establishment cultivators had been helpless against the beast, a Qi Refinement realm cultivator like Li Fan had naturally steered clear of accepting the mission task before.
But now, things were different.