That Derivation Jade tirelessly derives techniques day and night, surely producing many astonishing divine arts.
Even compared to the secret techniques that form the foundations of ancient sects and great clans, they wouldn't be much weaker. Even a single glance would greatly broaden my horizons.
It's just a pity my permission level isn’t sufficient.
Permissions, permissions...
Li Fan recalled the ways one could earn merit.
A figure suddenly flashed through his mind: Zhou Qing'ang, the guardian of Tai’an Island.
In the two lifetimes before this, this person had withdrawn and left before Crimson Flame's descent.
In Li Fan's view, there was something rather peculiar about this.
There were only two possibilities.
First, Zhou Qing'ang had backing, and very powerful backing at that.
In the tenth lifetime, even the two Spirit Transformation Immortal Eminences of Myriad Immortals Island hadn't detected Crimson Flame's arrival in advance. Yet Zhou Qing'ang had managed to do so.
This meant Zhou Qing'ang's backing was even more formidable than a Spirit Transformation powerhouse.
Was it some Dao Unity Immortal Venerable? In Li Fan's opinion, this possibility was very small.
If Zhou Qing'ang truly had a Dao Unity Immortal Venerable backing him, he could have simply left early. Why bother using the excuse of seeking opportunities elsewhere and finding a stand-in to be an acting guardian of Tai’an Island?
Thus, the likelihood of the second possibility was far higher: Zhou Qing'ang was a spy planted within the Myriad Immortals Alliance by another organization.
Li Fan believed that the world's top-tier powerhouses must have detected Crimson Flame’s descent in advance.
Though the Myriad Immortals Alliance headquarters hadn't warned Myriad Immortals Island in the Congyun Sea for unknown reasons, other organizations should have been able to detect some hints.
For example, the Wanhua Trade Association had issued an order for complete evacuation from the Congyun Sea before the calamity struck.
This Zhou Qing'ang must have received an internal notification from his organization, hence employing a “golden cicada shedding its shell” method to escape from Congyun.
Of course, this was still only Li Fan's speculation for now. To confirm it, he would need to test his theory.
If he turned out to be wrong, so be it.
But if Zhou Qing'ang truly was a spy, then Li Fan stood to gain immensely.
Not only would he reap substantial merit and contribution points, more importantly, Li Fan also intended to pry the method to deceive the Heart-Questioning Platform from him.
1. The full phrase explains that the perfect, complete Dao has 50 aspects. However, the phenomenal world we live in, governed by the workings of heaven (天衍), is only manifested through 49 of them.
The one missing aspect is the "escaping one" (遁去的一), which represents the variable of chance, unpredictability, and hope. It is the loophole in fate, the reason why nothing is ever truly predetermined or hopeless. ☜