Chapter 457: Not Losing as a Puppet Taoist

Jiao Xiuyuan, transforming into thousands of puppets, single-handedly managed to sustain Qiantang, a vast commercial organization spread throughout the Myriad Immortal Alliance.

His presence might be found in various ruins and in desolate, rarely populated wildernesses.

He could even, with his own power, stir up troubles in the Xuanhuang Realm.

It was somewhat like entering the Dao through commerce.

However, this person seemed to have rather poor luck.

While he claimed he never made a losing deal, from Li Fan's interactions with him, Jiao Xiuyuan often seemed to lose money in business.

For instance, when Li Fan first met him, he had hoarded a large number of Concealment Talismans, but their price plummeted due to the Five Elements Grand Cavern.

Or later, when he painstakingly dug up some Small Medicine King Cauldrons, if he had just waited for the true Medicine King Cauldron to return, he would surely have made a fortune.

But it was as if he was fated not to; he sold all these Small Medicine King Cauldrons at low prices early on.

"Perhaps he genuinely never made a loss, but it seems he always missed out on opportunities to strike it rich."

"Even in the previous life, when we jointly dealt in Spirit Mist Grass, his slight greed and slow withdrawal caused the massive fortune he had obtained to vanish instantly."

"Only in this current life has he truly profited significantly. I wonder if anything will change about him."

As Li Fan pondered, he carefully observed the items Jiao Xiuyuan had placed on the shelves, hoping to find any other valuable items like the Small Medicine King Cauldrons and pick up a small bargain.

The items on the shelves were varied, including all sorts of talismans, formation diagrams, and pills.

Li Fan specifically focused on items that mostly looked old.

Most of them were severely damaged, filled with traces of history.

There were paintings, various decorative items, and unknown magical artifacts that no longer retained any spiritual energy.

Li Fan's gaze swept over each one.

Suddenly, his gaze stopped on an ancient painting.

His expression grew solemn, and Li Fan took down the scroll and slowly unrolled it.

It wasn't that the painting itself had anything special; rather, the content depicted in it captured Li Fan's attention.

The painting depicted a magnificent and grand mountain sect entrance.

The heavens and earth stretched out uniformly, with dozens of cultivators standing on the clouds, pointing into the distance.

Within the sea of clouds, the majestic architectural complex on the mountaintop was faintly visible.

Divine birds, flood dragons, and various other exotic beasts moved through the mountains.

On the plaza below the mountain, stood hundreds of naive young disciples.

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

It truly was a picture of a thriving sect!

But...

Li Fan had seen this sect before, and it was vastly different from the prosperous scene in the painting.

Corpses were strewn everywhere, and blood flowed like rivers.

The sect gate was shattered, and the ground was covered in ruins.

It was precisely the scene he had seen at the bottom of the abyss when the thick fog in the Void Abyss dispersed during his time in Da Xuan.

The four characters "Immortal Dao is Dead" carved on the cliff face had deeply shocked Li Fan at the time.

Now Li Fan knew that this must have been the tragic aftermath of the Great Tribulation where cultivating the same laws was forbidden, a scene where sect disciples had slaughtered each other.

"Which sect is this exactly? Why did I see this place back then?"

It was important to know that the scenery each person saw from the bottom of the Void Abyss was different.

Li Fan seeing this ruined sect might just be due to some coincidence.

But Li Fan believed even more that there might be some kind of guidance within it.

Carefully putting away the scroll, and after a quick browse around, he didn't find anything else of value.

Li Fan then approached Jiao Xiuyuan.

"Fellow Daoist Jiao? Fellow Daoist Jiao!"

Li Fan called out a few symbolic times. Seeing that he still didn't respond, he reached out and began to feel around on him.

It wasn't that he had any peculiar habit; rather, it was to seize this rare opportunity to study Jiao Xiuyuan's Myriad Puppet Dao.

Although the *Marvelous Profound True Spirit Transformation* was already an astonishing divine art, it still had a slight flaw.

Born from the *Heaven-Stealing Sun-Shifting Art*, it could only have one clone simultaneously, which was truly a bit regrettable.

If he could integrate the Myriad Puppet Dao and advance further...

"Thousands of avatars, indistinguishable from the real."

As Li Fan mused in his mind, his hands moved without hesitation.

"It's almost exactly like a real person; even with spiritual sense permeating it, it's hard to find any difference."

"The control core seems to be in the head, a blue similar to the light of the Dao Transformation Stone."

"I've seen what puppets look like after they die: a withered yellow, like decaying wood. Could it be that all of Jiao Xiuyuan's puppet avatars are made from some kind of wood?"

Li Fan kept examining the puppet in front of him, combining it with what he had learned, carefully comprehending, and feeling that he had gained some subtle insights.

Just as he was secretly delighted, he suddenly noticed Jiao Xiuyuan's eyelids trembling slightly.

His heart skipped a beat, and Li Fan instantly distanced himself.

A moment later, he realized that Jiao Xiuyuan's previously dull eyes had regained their vitality.

"Fellow Daoist Jiao, are you awake?" Li Fan asked, feigning great concern.

"Huh? Fellow Daoist Li Fan? What are you doing here?" Jiao Xiuyuan asked, eying Li Fan suspiciously.

Li Fan originally wanted to explain everything about what happened after he was investigated, but unfortunately, having already signed a confidentiality agreement, he couldn't speak freely.

He could only opt for a secondary explanation, telling Jiao Xiuyuan that he had come here to take refuge from the surrounding crowds.

"Soon after I sensed Lu Xichan's arrival, I lost connection with this puppet. I knew then that something major had truly happened, and it turns out I was right."

"A confidentiality agreement, huh..."

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

"No wonder things seem a bit unsettled in Tianquan and Tianyu Prefectures..." Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he was about to ponder more deeply, when he inadvertently glanced over his own shop, and his expression instantly changed drastically.

With a flash, he appeared before the shelves, inspected them again, and exclaimed, "How does it seem like a painting is missing?"

"I painstakingly dug this out from a pile of trash!"

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

But he was surprised to find that the puppet in front of him, with a "bang," exploded into pieces.

Fortunately, it wasn't a shower of flesh and blood, but a scattering of wood chips.

"Fellow Daoist Jiao!" Li Fan was momentarily stunned by this sudden turn of events.

"I'm fine!" In an instant, another puppet emerged from under the counter.

With a look of misfortune on his face, he pulled 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 business deal, so it couldn't sustain itself," Jiao Xiuyuan said, not explaining much, merely shaking his head and sighing.

"How strange, how could a perfectly good painting just disappear? Who has the audacity to steal from me?" After cleaning up, Jiao Xiuyuan stroked his chin, muttering angrily.

"Uh, Fellow Daoist Jiao, I just forgot to tell you," Li Fan said, "While you were unconscious, I saw that painting was quite good, so I casually put it away."