Chapter 34 – The Wondrous Effects of the Purification Mantra

Li Fan quietly investigated the matter and confirmed that Yin Yuzhen had not lied about the Dust-Parting Pill.

So three days later, he met with Yin Yuzhen again and agreed to her request.

The two parties agreed that before the Body-Purifying Spirit Pool opened, Li Fan would help Heavenly Treasure House collect a certain quantity of treasures at regular intervals.

When the spirit pool opened, Yin Yuzhen would hand the Dust-Parting Pill over to Li Fan.

Of course, as a show of sincerity, Yin Yuzhen once again produced the property deed for Listening Serenity Tower.

Since they had reached an agreement, Li Fan didn’t stand on ceremony and pocketed it.

And so Li Fan moved again.

Listening Serenity Tower was located in the central area of Glazed Glass Island, surrounded by bustling activity.

Yet through its unique architectural design and artful placement of trees and plants, the noisy environment was completely shut out.

Though situated in the heart of the market district, it felt as if one were dwelling deep in the mountains.

This concept of finding stillness amid motion was the origin of its name—Listening Serenity.

Listening Serenity Tower was several times larger than Li Fan’s previous small courtyard, and its interior rockeries, ponds, flowers, and trees all required tending.

Once again declining the servant girls sent by Heavenly Treasure House, Li Fan went out and hired several workers on the island himself, having them come by once every three days to clean.

Yin Yuzhen could only sigh at Li Fan’s caution.

Fortunately, Li Fan did not cut corners on their agreed-upon arrangement.

During the year he lived at Listening Serenity Tower, Li Fan first completed three of Glazed Glass Island’s official sea expeditions. Each time he brought back several chests of treasure, shaking the entire island while also successfully earning Heavenly Treasure House a fleet quota.

After that, Li Fan accompanied every Heavenly Treasure House fleet expedition.

Over the course of the year, Heavenly Treasure House’s profits overflowed—nearly equal to the combined revenue of the previous five years.

He also established his authority among the Heavenly Treasure House members. Everyone who saw him treated him with a mixture of reverence and fear.

In the eyes of the Heavenly Treasure House staff, this Elder Li not only possessed extraordinary abilities, able to lead everyone to treasure on every expedition, but was also meticulous in thought and decisive in action.

During one fleet expedition, several crew members grew envious of the salvaged treasures and hatched a scheme to join forces, murder the others, and seize the loot.

What they never expected was that Elder Li had long noticed the irregularities. Before they could even make their move, he struck first and beheaded every one of them.

The bodies were thrown into the sea, and the heads were strung together as a warning to the rest.

Privately, people said that those crew members might have only been talking big after drinking and might not have actually had the nerve to commit murder and robbery.

But even with just that sliver of possibility, Elder Li had killed them all without hesitation.

Moreover, neither the Glazed Glass Island authorities nor the shopkeeper reprimanded him. On the contrary, they praised Elder Li’s actions, calling them a reasonable and effective measure to protect the island’s assets.

Even the island’s civilians, upon hearing the news, cursed those bandits as deserving of death and said Elder Li had done a fine job.

From that point on, no one in the Heavenly Treasure House fleet dared harbor any treacherous thoughts.

Everyone who saw Li Fan walked on eggshells, afraid he might find an excuse to cut them down.

……

Li Fan naturally didn’t care what others thought of him.

In order to fully take control of the fleet as quickly as possible, certain acts of killing the chicken to scare the monkey were quite necessary.

He had no intention of wasting his energy on such mundane affairs.

Over the past year, whenever he had free time, he devoted himself to diligently practicing the 《Xuanhuang Purification Mantra》.

Not only because it could dispel miasma, but because Li Fan had discovered something that filled him with unexpected joy.

The charging progress of 【Return to Truth】 had accelerated!

Prior to this, the charging progress of 【Return to Truth】 could only grow naturally with the passage of time.

It reached one hundred percent every twenty years, slowly rising to the upper limit of two hundred percent before stopping.

Across his previous nine lifetimes, Li Fan had tried every method he could think of to speed up the charging progress, but none had succeeded.

Li Fan had left Great Xuan and arrived in the cultivation world over a year ago.

According to the previous pattern, the charging progress should have been between six and seven percent.

But to his pleasant surprise, Li Fan discovered that the charging progress had already reached fifteen percent.

The charging speed had nearly doubled!

Apart from the Purification Mantra, Li Fan had not come into contact with anything else that could have contributed to this.

The only explanation was that practicing the 《Xuanhuang Purification Mantra》 could actually accelerate the charging progress of 【Return to Truth】.

Though he still didn’t understand the underlying principle, this didn’t stop Li Fan from cultivating with even greater diligence.

And with the 【Return to Truth】 panel’s display, every sliver of progress was visible in crystal clarity.

This also ensured that Li Fan wouldn’t lose motivation from long periods of monotonous, repetitive practice.

Besides the charging progress, Li Fan’s maximum lifespan had also grown considerably.

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Mortal

Biological Age: 42/95↑

Psychological Age: 505/1210↑

Turn Reality into Illusion Charging Progress: 115%

Anchor Charging Progress: 51%

Current Number of Anchors: 1

Bound Items: 《Mo Ji Yu Huan Jin Zhang》, Taiyan Vessel, Halt Stele Fragment (damaged)

……

Time slipped quietly by as Li Fan lost himself in cultivation.

Soon, only one year remained before the Body-Purifying Spirit Pool would open.

Glazed Glass Island also published the list of materials needed for this occasion.

Li Fan was currently studying this list together with the Heavenly Treasure House members.

“Everything else on this list is manageable, but what exactly is Starseaflowing Sand?” Li Fan asked with a frown after reading through it.

Having worked for Heavenly Treasure House for a year, Li Fan was not without gains.

At the very least, he had a general understanding of the common ores and rare materials circulating within the Layered Cloud Sea.

Not only did Sun Zhang look completely bewildered, but even the Heavenly Treasure House shopkeeper Yin Yuzhen fell silent.

“All the other required materials are quite common. Only this Starseaflowing Sand is something no one has heard of. It seems the key to competing for a quota this time will come down to this Starseaflowing Sand,” Sun Zhang said.

“I’ve been in business for over a decade and have never heard of this substance either.” Yin Yuzhen tapped the table lightly with her finger. “It seems we’ll need to inquire with people from the Myriad Splendor Trading Company.”

“Those people are all reincarnated hungry ghosts—greedy to the bone. I’m afraid this will cost us dearly,” Sun Zhang sighed.

“I am determined to secure a spirit pool quota,” Li Fan said in a deep voice.

The Myriad Splendor Trading Company was not a local trading company of the Layered Cloud Sea, but one that came from a continent untold tens of thousands of miles away.

It was said that the company had the backing of immortal masters, which allowed them to easily traverse the endless seas and come to this remote Layered Cloud Sea to do business.

Ever since Yin Yuzhen had established connections with the Myriad Splendor Trading Company over a decade ago, the two sides had maintained trade relations over the years.

And it was precisely through the Myriad Splendor Trading Company that Heavenly Treasure House could quickly absorb the large volumes of treasure Li Fan salvaged and convert them into profit.

“There’s still a year to prepare. The Myriad Splendor Trading Company’s traveling agent should be passing through the Layered Cloud Sea in about three months. I can reach out to him then,” Yin Yuzhen said.

“But we can’t pin all our hopes on the Myriad Splendor Trading Company. Over the past year, Glazed Glass Island has taken in quite a few refugees from other islands. These refugees come from all corners of the Layered Cloud Sea—there’s a chance some of them might know about this Starseaflowing Sand, so we should ask around among them. The other factions on the island will also be searching for this Starseaflowing Sand, so we need to keep close watch on them as well. The moment they discover anything, we can follow up immediately,” Li Fan made the final decision.