“Moreover, the number of Minor Medicine King Cauldrons seems to be more than just two.”
“If my strength is insufficient, the Minor Medicine King Cauldron is not a stroke of luck; it’s more like a death sentence.”
“But it would be a waste to leave such a treasure to rot away underground until it is picked up by someone else.”
“Perhaps, using this as a means, I can stir up some trouble. If I can also figure out the secret behind the returning Medicine King Cauldron, that would be even better.”
Li Fan’s thoughts surged.
“But before that, let’s have Jiao Xiuyuan take action and dig up the Minor Medicine King Cauldron.”
“Speaking of which, how much did Jiao Xiuyuan lose? Why hasn’t he replied to me yet?”
“The Thousand Mile Hall still hasn’t opened for business.”
Li Fan felt a bit helpless and had to use his clone to send another message to Jiao Xiuyuan.
Unexpectedly, this time Jiao Xiuyuan replied quickly, his tone somewhat innocent.
“What? I didn’t reply to you? How is that possible!”
“I recovered from my injuries a long time ago! But there’s a small problem, and the Thousand Mile Hall won’t be able to open for business temporarily.”
Li Fan was a bit speechless, “Take a look at your message history yourself.”
After a moment, Jiao Xiuyuan quickly apologized, “Ah, my mistake! I really didn’t notice! But you can’t blame me. Right now, I have a thousand things on my mind, a thousand things!”
Li Fan jokingly said, “I thought you lost too much and just ran away.”
“Hehe, friend, you’re joking. Business is my Dao. How could I easily give up? But the situation is special now. With my current strength, manipulating thousands of puppets is a bit challenging. To avoid making poor business decisions and causing even greater losses, I had to temporarily close some less important shops.”
Jiao Xiuyuan’s words were somewhat intermittent as if he was stuttering.
Li Fan couldn’t help but ask, “Could it be that there’s a problem with your cultivation technique? I wonder if you can share?”
“Hehe, there’s nothing to hide. Fellow Daoist, you are my partner, and last time, because of me, you lost a lot of money. I feel a bit guilty.” Jiao Xiuyuan was quite polite.
“You know that the cultivation technique I practice is called the ‘Ten Thousand Puppets Dao.’ I can control thousands of puppets to purchase goods, collect information, and negotiate business deals, reducing the cost of running Thousand Mile Hall to the extreme.”
“But a person’s mental capacity has limits. Handling two or three things at once is barely manageable. However, wanting to flexibly control tens of thousands of puppets is beyond my capabilities.”
Jiao Xiuyuan spoke slowly and paused.
Li Fan interjected, “So, how did you ensure that so many puppets operated normally before?”
“I did indeed split my mind to operate them, but not through a cultivation technique; it was by using an ancient technique!” Jiao Xiuyuan explained with some pride. “Back then, to find this ancient technique, I scoured through half of the cultivation world.”
“An ancient technique?” Li Fan’s eyes narrowed, and he couldn’t help but ask.
Seeing that Li Fan seemed to be very interested in this, Jiao Xiuyuan directly asked, “Do you know the ancient Tai Yan Sect?”
“Tai Yan Sect?” Li Fan was slightly stunned and couldn’t help but think of the tomb of Yi Xing buried underground in Grand Xuan.
Yi Xing was an outer disciple of the Tai Yan Sect.
He also pretended to be a descendant of the Tai Yan Sect in front of Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi, deceiving them into helping him repair the Tai Yan Boat.
Unexpectedly, the multitasking technique he sought was related to the Tai Yan Sect all along?
Seeing Li Fan hesitate and not reply, Jiao Xiuyuan thought Li Fan might not be familiar with it, so he briefly introduced, “This Tai Yan Sect, in the ancient times, was renowned for its divination and calculation techniques.”
“Their sect’s foundational cultivation technique, ‘Nine Scrolls of Divination,’ is extraordinarily profound and powerful. When cultivated to perfection, it’s said to be able to predict everything and everyone in the world a thousand years into the future.”
“Hehe. Of course, my ancient technique has nothing to do with this ‘Nine Volumes of Divination.'”
Jiao Xiuyuan’s words suddenly took a turn, and Li Fan’s breath paused.
“But this ancient technique is something that every disciple of Tai Yan Sect must learn.” Jiao Xiuyuan explained.
“Oh?”
“Fellow Daoist, think about it. In this world, everyone and everything is constantly influencing each other.”
“One change leads to a hundred changes, a hundred changes lead to ten thousand changes. The world is so vast.”
“The number of variables is truly unimaginable.”
“Even for a Dao Integration cultivator, it’s impossible to systematically comprehend all these variables.”
“And the number of variables grasped is closely related to the accuracy of deductions.”
“So, every disciple of Tai Yan Sect spends their entire life aspiring to improve their ability to master variables.”
Jiao Xiuyuan spoke eloquently.
“This ability, in simple terms, is a cultivator’s calculation ability. Some extraordinarily talented cultivators have exceptional calculation skills. Despite the complexity, in their eyes, all variables and each of their interactions are orderly and crystal clear.”
“But such cultivators are very rare. Even in the ancient Tai Yan Sect, they were extremely scarce.”
“So how did ordinary disciples of Tai Yan Sect enhance their calculation abilities?”
Jiao Xiuyuan paused.
Li Fan cooperatively asked, “Is this where your ancient technique comes in?”
“Exactly!” Jiao Xiuyuan excitedly revealed the mystery.
“If you are not born with this ability yourself, you might as well use external assistance!”
“This technique is called the ‘Divine Transformation Dao.'”
“In ancient times, within Tai Yan Sect, there was a treasure called the ‘Dao Transformation Stone.'”
“Light flows on the surface of the Dao Transformation Stone, and there seem to be countless worlds appearing and disappearing within this light.”
“But in reality, the birth and destruction of these worlds are not just illusions.”
“Instead, they are the results spontaneously deduced and calculated by the Dao Transformation Stone. Although temporary, they are not false.”
“This ‘Divine Transformation Dao’ technique involves using a secret method to merge one’s consciousness with the Dao Transformation Stone.”
“By doing so, one can utilize the terrifying calculation abilities of the Dao Transformation Stone to peer into fate and explore causality.”
Jiao Xiuyuan’s tone became more fluent.
“In ancient times, almost every Tai Yan Sect disciple had a Dao Transformation Stone. They were separated from the largest one called the ‘Mother Dao Transformation Stone.'”
“The higher the quality of the Dao Transformation Stone, the stronger its calculation abilities.”
“The reason I could easily control these thousands of puppets before was because of the Dao Transformation Stone and the ‘Divine Transformation Dao.'”
“And now, the small trouble I encountered is also related to the Dao Transformation Stone.”
“The price collapse of Lingwu Grass last time caused me significant losses. With thousands of puppets simultaneously under extreme mental duress, my lower-quality Dao Transformation Stone couldn’t withstand the pressure and directly cracked, losing its calculation function.”
Jiao Xiuyuan mentioned the sad past, sighing.
“To smoothly control these thousands of puppets again, I need to find a new Dao Transformation Stone.”
“It’s a rare item and highly sought after.”
“When the great calamity came, Tai Yan Sect perished, and the Mother Dao Transformation Stone disappeared without a trace. Now, after so long, trying to find a new Dao Transformation Stone is like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“But recently, I’ve got some information. If everything goes well, I believe I won’t be far from resuming operations.”
Jiao Xiuyuan’s tone became enthusiastic again.
“The Dao Transformation Stone, Divine Transformation Dao.”
Li Fan pondered for a moment and then asked tentatively, “Tai Yan Sect has been destroyed for thousands of years. Why does it seem like you know so much about various secrets of the Tai Yan Sect? Could it be that you are a descendant of the Tai Yan Sect?”
“Fellow Daoist, don’t joke. I am certainly not a descendant of Tai Yan Sect. The reason I know these secrets is that I happened to dig up the grave of a Tai Yan Sect disciple…”
Upon hearing this, Li Fan fell silent.
The two of them fell into an eerie silence for a while.
“Haha, fellow Daoist, don’t misunderstand. Digging graves is just something I occasionally do. The source of my goods at Thousand Mile Hall is clean, and only a small portion comes from graves.”
“Hehe, fellow Daoist, rest assured. I’m not very scrupulous about this matter. My belief is that regardless of the origin, as long as it’s useful, it’s fine,” Li Fan said.
“Tsk tsk, what you said is in line with my beliefs, fellow Daoist!” Jiao Xiuyuan became excited again.
Li Fan recalled his original intention of contacting Jiao Xiuyuan and continued, “Speaking of this, I have a matter that I’d like to ask for your help, fellow Daoist.”
Jiao Xiuyuan immediately said, “Fellow Daoist, feel free to speak. If it’s within my ability, I will definitely help.”
“Fellow Daoist, you should be familiar with the ancient Medicine King Sect, right? Today, when I was researching ancient texts, I found that the disciples of the Medicine King Sect used a kind of small cauldron to cultivate various spiritual plants and herbs.”
“This small cauldron has its own space and can generate wood attribute spiritual energy, accelerating the growth of herbs.”
“I happen to need this kind of small cauldron to cultivate a rare herb.”
“But it seems that the ruins of the Medicine King Sect are quite dangerous, so I would like to trouble fellow Daoist to go there and find these cauldrons for me.”
“Of course, the reward will definitely not be lacking. Although we are like-minded and get along well, business is business, and we can’t be lax,” Li Fan smiled and said slowly.
Jiao Xiuyuan agreed enthusiastically, “Fellow Daoist, you said it well. Business is business. Just because of your words, consider this task already accepted! Small cauldrons, right? These are not particularly cherished items and should not be difficult to find.”
“Fellow Daoist, just wait for my good news.”
“In that case, I’ll trouble fellow Daoist Jiao,” Li Fan thanked in advance.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, without mentioning the Dao Transformation Stone and the Divine Transformation Dao, Li Fan ended the conversation.
“The tomb of a Tai Yan Sect disciple, Dao Transformation Stone…”
In the Tianxuan Mirror, scenes of when he was still an ordinary official leading a group to explore Yi Xing’s tomb flashed in Li Fan’s mind.
“At that time, as a mortal, I didn’t pay much attention.”
“Now that I think about it, it seems that there was another world inside Yi Xing’s tomb.”
“The spiritual energy in the Land of Immortal Extinction was severed, but inside that tomb, there were mountains and a sea of clouds that had not dissipated for thousands of years.”
“Obviously, it was not a mortal mechanism; it should be some kind of formation.”
Li Fan suddenly stood up.
“If that’s the case, I’ll go back to Grand Xuan!”