Chapter 65 – One Hundred Thousand Contribution Points

In his previous life, Li Fan had spent the majority of his plundered treasures laundering them through the salvage process just to secure a spot at the Body-Purifying Spirit Pool on Glazed Glass Island.

What remained had only converted to a mere 235 contribution points.

But this time, with a total value of 863 contribution points, Li Fan finally understood why some cultivators would secretly help mortals smuggle their way into the cultivation world.

He, Li Fan, had merely raided the estates of a few corrupt officials and local tyrants, and that alone had earned him over eight hundred contribution points.

For those cultivators making such runs, earning over a thousand points per trip was probably perfectly normal.

After all, a single Qi Refining cultivation technique cost only around a thousand points.

One trip every decade or so—that was no small income at all.

“Wealth truly moves the heart…”

Li Fan sighed, then took out the glazed pearl he had obtained from inside the giant glazed fish.

“Exquisite Glazed Pearl. Can be converted to 850 contribution points.”

After thinking it over, the Exquisite Glazed Pearl was essentially a weakened version of the glazed pill. Its effects were somewhat inferior, but the advantage was that it wouldn’t be consumed upon use.

It would certainly prove useful in future cultivation, so Li Fan chose not to exchange it and put it away again.

Li Fan looked at his total of 2,831 contribution points and shook his head.

Still not enough. Far too little!

Knowledge related to Heavenly-Earthly Wonders alone cost over two thousand points.

When Li Fan had been hunted by the Myriad Immortals Alliance Protector before, he had realized that despite nominally being at the late Qi Refining stage, his actual combat strength was pitifully low.

As his current primary cultivation technique, 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》 lacked effective offensive methods.

Apart from the Formless Killing Intent he had comprehended on his own, he had no other means of fighting enemies.

Though the Formless Killing Intent was powerful, it had a fatal flaw—it often required a period of time before taking effect.

It was only suitable for covert assassination, not for direct confrontation.

Once caught in a fight, or surrounded, Li Fan’s only option was to flee.

And with only the most primitive Wind-Riding Seal at his disposal, he most likely couldn’t outrun anyone either.

Couldn’t win a fight, couldn’t escape one.

Tragedy was all but certain.

So the dazzling array of offensive techniques, escape arts, defensive methods, and even the various magical artifacts, formation diagrams, and pills within the Myriad Mysteries Mirror…

Li Fan wanted them all!

This meager amount of contribution points was nowhere near enough.

After pondering for a moment, he began browsing the bounty tasks posted by other cultivators in the Myriad Mysteries Mirror.

When his consciousness had merged with the ocean’s will in his previous life, he had seen many hidden treasures and secrets throughout the Layered Cloud Sea.

Some of these were within reach given his current strength—like the Exquisite Glazed Pearl.

But many others were extremely dangerous, things that even Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn’t easily covet.

Rather than let these secrets rot away in the sea, it was better to sell some of them off early and convert them into combat power as quickly as possible.

His gaze swept rapidly across the listings.

When he spotted one particular task, Li Fan stopped immediately.

With a flicker of spiritual sense, he pulled up the task details.

Elder Chen of the Medicine Hall required a supplementary ingredient for pill refinement: blue blood coral.

A bounty was hereby issued to all members of the Myriad Immortals Alliance: anyone who could provide relevant information, once verified, would receive 1,000 contribution points.

Anyone who could directly supply the blue blood coral would receive 3,000 contribution points.

Li Fan reviewed all the remaining tasks, but only this one offered the most generous reward among those he had knowledge about.

So Li Fan accepted the task.

“In the northwestern waters of the Layered Cloud Sea, roughly two hundred li (100 km) west of Mist Crow Island. I once saw this type of coral on the seabed.”

“Unfortunately, the coral is guarded by a sea serpent.”

“I don’t know the sea serpent’s exact strength, but merely glancing at it from afar filled me with a sense of mortal danger.”

……

Li Fan fabricated a cover story and submitted the task.

Given Ten Thousand Immortals Island’s efficiency, the truthfulness of his information would likely be verified quite quickly.

Sure enough, barely half a day had passed before Li Fan received the task reward.

However, what was thought-provoking was that the bounty for blue blood coral hadn’t been canceled afterward—it still hung there.

“It seems Elder Chen needs quite a large quantity of this blue blood coral. I wonder what kind of pill he’s actually refining.”

To willingly spend 3,000 contribution points on just one supplementary ingredient—whatever pill he was refining must be extraordinary indeed.

But Li Fan was merely curious.

Elder Chen was said to be the chief elder of Ten Thousand Immortals Island’s Medicine Hall, a great cultivator at the Nascent Soul realm. That level was still far beyond Li Fan’s current reach.

Suppressing the curiosity that had momentarily surged within him, Li Fan focused his attention on the single most conspicuous listing among all the bounty tasks.

This was also the reason Li Fan was so eager to increase his strength.

Task: Bounty for 《The Cloud-Water Chart》.

Reward: 100,000 contribution points.

Two simple lines, with no other explanation whatsoever.

But those six digits of contribution points were enough to make the heart of every cultivator who laid eyes on them tremble with uncontrollable desire.

One hundred thousand contribution points!

Many cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Alliance might never accumulate that much in their entire lives.

With that many contribution points, reaching the Nascent Soul realm might be uncertain, but cultivating to the Golden Core realm would certainly be no difficult feat!

Countless cultivators had stared at those two lines with green-eyed envy, reading them over and over, fantasizing about the glory that would follow if they completed the task.

Unfortunately, the bounty had been posted for over a decade now, and forget about completing it—

No one had even figured out what 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 actually was.

The one who posted the task was equally mysterious, never once showing their face or offering any explanation from start to finish.

As if telling everyone: those who understand will understand; explaining to those who don’t would be pointless.

In all of the Layered Cloud Sea, not a single person knew where 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 could be found.

Except Li Fan.

“《The Cloud-Water Chart》… the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace.” Li Fan repeated the words in his mind over and over.

This 《Cloud-Water Chart》, worth a staggering one hundred thousand contribution points, was inside the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace.

The Cloud-Water Celestial Palace—or more precisely, the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace ruins—was the very place Xiao Heng had mentioned in his letter in the previous life, the place he had gone to search for a Heavenly-Earthly Wonder.

The reason no one currently knew this secret was simply because the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace had not yet emerged into the world.

In his previous life, it was only because of Xiao Heng’s message that Li Fan had become interested in the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace.

And thus committed to memory this event that would soon shake the entire Layered Cloud Sea.

The Cloud-Water Celestial Palace, suspended alone beyond the seas.

It was said to have been the most powerful sect within the entire Layered Cloud Sea during the ancient era.

When the Great Heavenly Calamity descended, the disciples of the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace turned on each other in a vicious slaughter, until fewer than one in a thousand survived.

The survivors decided to activate their sect-protecting grand formation, and from that point on withdrew from the world, never to emerge again.

The Cloud-Water Celestial Palace had thus remained hidden behind the formation, concealed within the central waters of the Layered Cloud Sea.

It was not until Anchor Year 11 that the formation finally collapsed, and the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace, hidden for ten thousand years, at last reappeared before the world.

Yet even choosing to withdraw from the world had not spared the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace from its ultimate fate of annihilation.

When the cultivators of the Layered Cloud Sea entered the palace, they discovered that the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace had long since become a ruin—one teeming with the bizarre and the uncanny.