Chapter 1007: The Heavenly Profound Mirror Witnesses All Life
Chapter 1007: The Heavenly Profound Mirror Witnesses All Life
Like a child with a brand-new toy, Li Fan explored the information within the Heavenly Profound Mirror with unrestrained delight.
His only regret was that the Dao Transformation Stone in his sea of consciousness wasn't of a high enough grade to record and store everything he saw and heard.
This was information that every cultivator guarded as their deepest secret, yet now it was all laid bare before Li Fan's eyes.
But that wasn't all.
It also included the complete transaction details for every single item ever circulated on the Immortal Alliance market, for as long as records had been kept.
The sheer volume was dazzling, almost overwhelming.
Even more valuable were the data logs from every cultivator who practiced using the [Enlightenment] system.
The cultivation efficiency of every single practitioner was on full display.
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of data contained within the mirror was simply too vast. It was even growing with every passing moment.
It was utterly impossible to grasp it all.
He could only pick out the most important information to record for now.
Li Fan knew that the information he was currently browsing was undoubtedly being monitored by the Heavenly Profound Mirror itself.
But it didn't matter. The vast majority of this information was of no use to him in his current life.
Instead, it would prove invaluable in every one of his future reincarnations within the Xuanhuang Realm!
The Heavenly Profound Mirror was an endless sea, and Li Fan was like someone digging a canal at its shore, continuously channeling its waters into himself.
The progress was somewhat slow, but it was steady.
Li Fan tucked the Tianxuan Minor Mirror into his robes, keeping the stream of information flowing.
He then quietly departed from the bamboo grotto-heaven and returned to the Spirit Wood Realm.
Only when the volume of browsed information reached a critical mass, nearly bursting the medium-grade Dao Transformation Stone in his sea of consciousness, did he slow the recording process.
He then began to browse the records for information on all the existing Dao Transformation Stones in the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
"One fragment of the Stone Mother."
"Three supreme-grade, sixteen high-grade."
"Medium-grade... hmm?"
"There are no medium-grade ones?"
At first, Li Fan thought he had made an error in his search.
But after checking again and again, he confirmed there was no mistake.
After a moment of thought, Li Fan immediately understood the reason for this phenomenon.
All Dao Transformation Stones originated from the Dao Transformation Stone Mother, and they could be merged to advance to higher grades.
"It must be that the cultivators in the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance who know the secrets of the Dao Transformation Stones have long since scoured the market and snatched up every single one that has ever appeared."
"Even if a new one were to surface, it would be acquired through various means almost instantly."
"Damn it. No wonder I couldn't buy one even with my contribution points."
A glint in his eye, Li Fan began to look up the list of cultivators who possessed these Dao Transformation Stones.
What he saw filled him with a sense of absurdity.
"The owner of the Stone Mother fragment was... an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator."
And the registered owners of the other supreme-grade and high-grade Dao Transformation Stones were all Foundation Establishment or Golden Core cultivators.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see that these identities were clearly fronts.
"An innocent man courts trouble by carrying a treasure. A prize like this is simply not something a Foundation Establishment or Golden Core cultivator could possibly hold onto."
"This kind of disguise could indeed thwart investigations from some cultivators with ill intentions."
"But as long as they exist, there must be connections. Every trace, every clue from the past, has been faithfully recorded by the Heavenly Profound Mirror."
"How could they possibly escape my pursuit...?"
At this point, Li Fan dropped all pretense before the Heavenly Profound Mirror and pulled up all the detailed information on these twenty shell identities.
From the moment they first accessed the Heavenly Profound Mirror to the present day, he accessed all their communications, their trading partners, and even the people who referred them.
He then pulled the data on these secondary suspects.
Like casting a giant net, he spread it wider and wider, layer by layer.
By the fifth degree of separation, the number of connected cultivators in the net had already swelled to over a hundred thousand.
"Among these, some can be eliminated immediately."
Li Fan pressed his throbbing temples, his mind screaming under the strain of the overload. He paused for a moment to recover.
Then he resumed his search for targets within the data.
After repeated comparisons and eliminations, He finally narrowed the list down to under a hundred names.
Their cultivation levels ranged from Nascent Soul to Dao Integration.
"Investigating this alone will still be troublesome."
"First, I'll focus on monitoring their recent activities in the Heavenly Profound Mirror. Then, I'll have Mo Rubin help with a covert investigation."
After a moment of deliberation, Li Fan had a plan.
Nearly all of these hundred individuals held positions within the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
For him to investigate them alone was next to impossible.
Without special connections, he might never even get the chance to meet them in his lifetime.
However, an investigation coming from a Dharma Transmitter—a top-down inquiry—would be much, much easier.
"The Dao Transformation Stone is just too useful. If the Taiyan Sect's Stone Mother hadn't already been digitized, I'd be tempted to throw caution to the wind and just go rob them outright."
But then he recalled the sliver of white light that had escaped during the world's destruction in his 115th life, and he calmed down, facing reality.
Whatever managed to successfully flee from a world-ending crisis brought on by a True Immortal was clearly not something the current Li Fan could handle.
For the next period of time, Li Fan's days were quite fulfilling.
The Final Dissociation Disc operated at peak efficiency, absorbing the essence of the Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array and continuously deducing new possibilities for formations.
Meanwhile, the Dao Transformation Stone categorized and integrated the information obtained from the Heavenly Profound Mirror, selecting the most valuable parts.
As for Li Fan himself, he spent his time wandering through the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
He was like an invisible observer; no one could see him, but he could see everyone.
Their conversations, their cultivation, their transactions.
Under the veil of anonymity provided by the Heavenly Profound Mirror, cultivators were far more uninhibited than in the real world.
Thus, Li Fan witnessed a more authentic tapestry of life.
For example, friends who called each other brother one moment would immediately start cursing one another after they parted ways.
For instance, countless cultivators, much like He Zhenghao in the beginning, chased the dream of getting rich overnight. They would try every scheme imaginable to pursue various paths of "investment," only to end up losing everything. In the aftermath, they would secretly vow never to be so foolish again. Yet, once they managed to accumulate another small fortune, they couldn't resist the siren call of temptation and would dive back in, only to meet the same disastrous fate.
Then there were the considerable number of cultivators who, after giving cultivation a real try, came to a sobering conclusion. They realized that with their level of talent and snail-like progress, they were never going to achieve greatness in this lifetime.
So they abandoned their grand ambitions and settled for doing only the most basic, safest tasks.
They earned just enough to get by within the Heavenly Profound Mirror and then became permanent residents. After all, within the mirror's virtual space, there were no natural disasters to assail them, no sickness, and no worldly worries.
Freed from all sorts of desires, they lived a carefree and surprisingly peaceful life.
Watching the different lives of these various cultivators unfold, Li Fan's own mentality began to quietly shift once more, almost without him noticing.
Comments