Chapter 492: Chapter 464: No Loss to the Way of Puppets

Jiao Xiuyuan transformed into thousands of puppets, single-handedly supporting the colossal business organization known as Thousand Miles Hall, that is widespread across the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals.

In various ruins, or on desolate wildernesses rarely trodden by people, his shadow might be found.

Even with his lone power, he could stir the storms of the Xuanhuang World.

His antics exhibited a bit of a commercial path towards enlightenment.

However, it seems like his luck is subpar.

He claims to never engage in trades at a loss, but from Li Fan’s experiences interacting with him, it appears that Jiao Xiuyuan often suffers losses in his trades.

Whether it was when he first met him, and he stockpiled an abundance of Invisible Talismans, only for their prices to plummet due to the Five Elements Great Cave Heaven event.

Or later when, after painstakingly excavating some Little Pharma Sovereign Cauldrons, he could make a fortune once the Medicine King Cauldron returns.

Yet, as though he was born without such fate, he had sold all those Little Pharma Sovereign Cauldrons at a low price prematurely.

“Perhaps he never really makes any losses, only seems to just miss out on opportunities to make a fortune each time.”

“Even in the last life when we invested in Spirit Mist Grass together, due to his smidgen of greed and being slow to cash out, the immense wealth he grasped evaporated into nothing.”

“Only in this life has he truly made substantial profit. I wonder if anything will change in his life now.”

As Li Fan contemplated, he carefully observed the items Jiao Xiuyuan had placed on the shelves, to see if he could find something like the Little Pharma Sovereign Cauldrons, a chance to snag a bargain.

Stuff on the shelves were varied; there were all kinds of talisman records, array diagrams, elixirs, etc.

Li Fan paid special attention to those items that looked their age.

Most of them were badly damaged, bearing the marks of history.

Scrolls, various ornaments, unidentified magic tools devoid of any spiritual energy,

Li Fan swept his gaze over them all.

Suddenly, his gaze halted on an ancient painting.

With a slightly grave expression, Li Fan took down the painting and slowly unrolled it.

It wasn’t the painting itself that was anything special, but its content that caught Li Fan’s attention.

The painting depicted a majestic and beautiful mountain gate.

The vastness of heaven and earth, with dozens of cultivators standing in the clouds, pointing to the distance.

Within the Cloud Sea, towering buildings on the mountain tops were faintly visible.

Mythical birds, water dragons, and various exotic beasts moved through the mountains.

On the square below the mountain, hundreds of young disciples with youthfulness still lingering on their faces stood.

They looked up at the cultivators in the sky, their faces filled with excitement and envy.

It portrayed a thriving and prosperous sect!

But…

Li Fan had seen this sect before, and it was far different from the thriving picture painted here.

Carcasses covered the ground; blood was flowing into a river.

The mountain gate was shattered; ruins were strewn across the ground.

It was the scene he saw at the bottom of the Abyss in Da Xuan when the dense mist dissipated.

The words “Demise of the Immortal Path” carved on the cliffside deeply shocked Li Fan at the time.

Now Li Fan knew, this must be the scene after the Great Calamity, where disciples of the sect killed each other.

“Which sect was this exactly? Why did I see this place back then?”

Keep in mind, the scene everyone saw at the bottom of the Abyss was different.

The fact that Li Fan could see this devastated sect might just have been a coincidence.

But Li Fan believes there might be some guidance in it.

After carefully putting away the picture scroll and having a walk around without finding anything else valuable, Li Fan came to Jiao Xiuyuan’s side.

“Elder Jiao? Elder Jiao!”

Li Fan called out a few symbolic times. Seeing that he still had no response, he reached out and began to feel around on him.

It was not that he had any unusual quirks, it was just to take advantage of this rare opportunity to study Jiao Xiuyuan’s Ten Thousand Puppet Dao.

Although “Extraordinary True Spirit Transformation Technique” is already a shocking skill, it still has a few minor drawbacks.

Born from “The Secret of Swapping Day and Night,” it could only maintain one clone at a time, which was a bit of a pity.

If he could integrate the Ten Thousand Puppet Dao further…

“A thousand clones, true and false indistinguishable.”

While Li Fan was lost in his thoughts, his actions were not vague.

“It is almost identical to a real person, even with divine sense piercing through and sensing, it is difficult to find the difference.”

“The control core seems to be in the brain, similar to the blue of the Huadao Stone Aura.”

“I have seen the scene after a puppet died before, with a colour of yellow like rotting wood. Could it be that all these puppet incarnates of Jiao Xiuyuan are made from some kind of wood?”

“”

…

Li Fan kept flipping through the puppet in front of him, combining what he learned, and carefully comprehending, he felt he was gaining some insights.

Just when he was secretly delighted, he suddenly noticed that Jiao Xiuyuan’s eyelid twitched slightly.

He took a leap in his mind and immediately distanced himself from Jiao Xiuyuan.

A moment later, he noticed that the previously lightless eyes of Jiao Xiuyuan became lively again.

“Elder Jiao, have you woke up?” Li Fan asked, pretending to be very concerned.

“Hmm? Elder Li? How come you are here?” Jiao Xiuyuan looked at Li Fan suspiciously.

Li Fan initially wanted to tell Jiao Xiuyuan everything that happened after the investigation, but unfortunately he had already signed a confidentiality agreement and couldn’t say anything.

So he had to resort to the next best thing, telling Jiao Xiuyuan that he came here to hide because of the encircling crowd.

“I lost contact with this puppet not long after Lu Qixian arrived. I knew something big had happened, and indeed it did.”

“Confidentiality agreement, huh…”

Jiao Xiuyuan glanced at Li Fan, guessing the reason for his evasion.

“No wonder Tianquan and Tianyu Province seem a bit disturbed…” Jiao Xiuyuan’s eyes slightly narrowed, meaning to think deeper, but unintentionally swept over his own shop, and his face instantly changed.

With a flash of his body, he came to the shelf, checked it again, and exclaimed, “It seems that a painting is missing?”

“I painstakingly found this from a pile of trash!”

Li Fan was about to say that the painting was with him.

But to his surprise, the puppet in front of him suddenly “Bang!” burst into pieces.

Luckily, it wasn’t blood and flesh flying around, just wood shavings.

“Elder Jiao!” Li Fan was also stunned by the sudden change.

“I’m fine!” In the blink of an eye, another puppet emerged from under the counter.

With a sullen face, he took out a broom and began to clean up the scene.

“What just happened?” Li Fan couldn’t help but ask curiously.

“I made a losing deal, so it couldn’t continue.” Jiao Xiuyuan did not explain more, just shook his head and sighed.

“It’s just strange, how could a good painting just disappear? Who has such a boldness to steal from me?” After cleaning up, Jiao Xiuyuan scratched his chin and grumbled.

“Eh, Elder Jiao, I forgot to tell you earlier. When you passed out, I saw that the painting was good, so I took it.” It was at this moment, he heard Li Fan say this.