Upon returning to Myriad Immortals Island via teleportation array, Li Fan discovered that news of Cloudwater Palace's emergence had already spread far and wide.
Breaking news! The Millennia-Sealed Sect Reappears in the World Filled with Oddities.
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Top-Secret Intel: 10 Contribution Points a Copy! No Swindling, Guaranteed!
The first edition of the intelligence was sold by Jiao Xiuyuan, containing only information related to the first of Qin Tang's trials.
Yet, being first-hand intelligence, it still commanded a high price of 30 contribution points per copy.
Jiao Xiuyuan made quite a profit from it.
However, as more and more survivors returned from Cloudwater Palace, intelligence about the ruins grew more abundant. Thus, the price plummeted accordingly.
Of course, due to the limited number of explorers in the first wave, the intelligence circulating in the market was still restricted to Qin Tang’s stone statue and a few nearby Oddities.
Deeper areas of Cloudwater Palace, such as the Demon-Refining Pagoda and Taiyi Hall, remained a complete blank in terms of available intelligence.
Li Fan shook his head, returned to the Tianxuan Mirror, and began taking stock of his gains from this expedition.
There was the Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art taught by Qin Tang, Daoist Chong's Insect Binding divine ability, and the Cloudwater Model; as well as the Sea-Calming Sword Art and Heaven-Swapping Art, along with the Heaven-Swapping Token obtained from Sikong Yi.
He had already cultivated the Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Scripture, Nether Spirit Illusion Art, and Shadow Stalk Art.
As the saying goes, don’t bite off more than you can chew. With these new techniques, he naturally had to be selective about which ones to practice.
Among them, Insect Binding was a divine ability and required no cultivation.
The Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art was incredibly useful. It would play a significant role in Li Fan's upcoming plans, so he had to cultivate it.
The Heaven-Swapping Art was decent, but...
Li Fan's divine sense swept over the Heaven-Swapping Token within his storage ring.
The method for crafting an avatar was worth attempting.
As for the technique later created by Sikong Yue, which transferred one's life essence into the Heaven-Swapping Token, there was no need to cultivate that.
In Li Fan's view, Sikong Yue's life-preservation method was far from perfect.
At the very least, if someone replicated Li Fan’s method of trapping both the true self and the avatar, then destroyed them time and time again, the so-called resurrection would be nothing but a joke.
In this world, when it came to methods to preserve life, what could surpass Return to Truth?
Why bother pursuing inferior alternatives?
Moreover, looking at the slightly eerie, almost living token, Li Fan had a faint premonition.
Heaven-Swapping. Exactly who is swapping with whom is probably not so clear-cut.
There’s no need to take that risk. I’ll set it aside for now and verify it later if the opportunity arises.
The Sea-Calming Sword Art can be cultivated all the way to the Golden Core realm. Upon reaching a large degree of mastery, one can coalesce 108 Sea-Calming Swords within the dantian.
Against a single foe, one can unleash a hundred swords at once; against many, those swords combine into the Sea-Calming Sword Array. It’s a top-tier killing technique.
Its power is considerable, but there's no rush to cultivate it now.
It is already Anchor Year 12. The evaporation of the sea in that past life occurred in Anchor Year 31. Previously, I hesitated about whether to participate in this major event. But now with these unexpected gains, I might still be able to stir up storms within the Congyun Sea even if my true self flees to a distant continent. For example, using an avatar and the Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art.
In an instant, countless schemes flashed through Li Fan's mind.
Only after a long while did he finally set those thoughts aside for the moment.
He took out that small, multi-colored model from his storage ring and examined it carefully.
If I hadn't personally obtained this from Taiyi, I probably wouldn't believe this is the legendary Cloudwater Model. Li Fan mused after studying it for a time, still unable to discern any of its secrets.
Perhaps there truly are secrets hidden within. But if I can't decipher them, it's no different from trash in my hands. Exchanging it for one hundred thousand contribution points would be the most appropriate move.
However, it would be too conspicuous to submit it through my true self. I should first create an avatar.
Li Fan checked his current contribution points.
He had nearly exhausted all his contribution points to deal with Sikong Yi. Only five hundred or so remained.
Fortunately, most of the materials needed to create an avatar weren't particularly expensive.
Peak-grade Bone, Celestial Spirit Nectar, Bone-Shattering Treasure Sinew... Li Fan purchased them one by one.
Finally, when only 135 contribution points remained, Li Fan had acquired all the materials except for the last one: Skycrystal Spirit Sand.
According to Sikong Yi's memories, this Skycrystal Spirit Sand could be gathered from a certain location in the Congyun Sea.
Subsequently, Li Fan activated the Assisted Cultivation Mode and began cultivating the Heaven-Swapping Art.
The Heaven-Swapping Art was somewhat similar to Li Fan's primary cultivation method, the Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Scripture.
The Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Scripture cultivated energy mechanisms, while the Heaven-Swapping Art stole fate.
Both energy mechanisms and fate were profound, elusive, and difficult to sense, yet undeniably real.
With the boost from the epiphanic state, it took Li Fan three days to reach the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm in the Heaven-Swapping Art.
His contribution points, however, had dwindled to a pitiful 35.
Since the minimum level to refine an avatar was the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm, he simply stopped cultivating.
Gathering the materials, Li Fan left Myriad Immortals Island via teleportation array and arrived at Lingyun Island in the western region of the Congyun Sea.
The location of the Skycrystal Spirit Sand wasn't far from Lingyun Island.
After briefly greeting Lingyun Island's guardian, Li Fan casually activated a Form-Concealing Talisman and flew toward the location from his memories.
After several days of travel, he stopped above a sea area dotted with whirlpools of various sizes and dove beneath the waves.
The water here was relatively shallow. After descending around three to four hundred meters, he reached the bottom.
The ruins of collapsed buildings were scattered everywhere, clearly marking this as a sunken relic site.
The large scale of the ruins allowed one to vaguely imagine its former prosperity, though it was unclear why the location had sunk to the seabed.
Such ruins were common throughout the Congyun Sea, so Li Fan wasn't particularly surprised.
After all, when Li Fan first arrived in the Congyun Sea, he had heard stories of stormfloods ravaging the area and sinking hundreds of islands.
He arrived beside a tilted, square megalith and slipped through a gap between the stones.
Inside was a dark cavern, with over a hundred glowing jellyfish drifting within like wandering stars.
The floor of the cavern was covered in a layer of fine, glittering sand.
At the center of the cavern, a massive boulder had been hollowed out, serving as a home for the jellyfish.
The glowing sand on the ground was none other than Skycrystal Spirit Sand.
Li Fan collected the Skycrystal Spirit Sand from the ground and glanced at the giant stone, marveling at the wonder of creation.
This was also a place Sikong Yi had discovered by chance.
The central boulder was nothing more than a common piece of Sky Spirit Ore.
Yet after being consumed and digested by this unknown species of jellyfish, it had somehow been transformed into the precious material known as Skycrystal Spirit Sand.
Truly remarkable.
One had to understand that even a Foundation Establishment artifact forging master would require considerable effort and time to refine Skycrystal Spirit Sand through artificial means.