279: Sky-high price of "ticket"

The sword-shaped starship sailed silently through curvature flight.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

When the bizarre, distorted bands of light outside the porthole gradually settled and returned to the deep starry sky, the cold text on the navigation light screen changed accordingly.

[Arrived: Azurewood Star Region]

Lin Fan stood before the porthole, his expression calm.

He hadn't been idle during these three days.

The temporary power of Black Skull's Refining Void Realm, along with the Law fragments from "Myriad Souls Return to Emptiness," were great supplements for the Overlord Saint Body.

He needed a little time to thoroughly digest this "gift pack" and stabilize his cultivation at the Early Stage of the Void Refining Realm.

Now, with every breath he took, he seemed to trigger a subtle resonance in the surrounding space. His pure physical strength was more than a notch stronger than it had been three days ago.

It was time to get down to business.

The crisis of the Cuiyun Sect was just an appetizer.

One of his true purposes for coming here was to receive old friends.

Zhao Linger, Fatty Zhang... those people who had crossed paths with him in the Lower Realm.

This Star Domain was too vast and too dangerous.

Seeking death alone was ultimately a bit lonely, and not very efficient.

He needed to establish an absolutely safe "back garden" of his own, as well as a team that could continuously provide him with various kinds of "help."

With a thought, Lin Fan's Divine Sense sank into the Storage Ring that belonged to Black Skull.

He needed to build a "Cross-Realm Reception Formation."

This was a large-scale Formation that was extremely resource-intensive and technically demanding, capable of crossing world barriers to precisely "fish" people up from lower planes.

And in Blood Crow's collection, there happened to be the complete blueprints for such an ancient grand Formation.

Now, all that remained was to take stock of the Materials.

Within the Divine Sense space.

Lin Fan's consciousness body stood atop a continuous mountain range formed by piles of Top-Grade Spirit Stones, and for a moment, he felt somewhat dazed.

He casually grabbed a handful of Spirit Stones, feeling the pure Spiritual Qi contained within.

When he was in the Lower Realm, he had to go to great lengths for just a few hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Yet this mountain before his eyes probably stretched for tens of thousands of miles, and every single stone was Top-Grade.

"These... how many Qingyun Sects could I buy with these?"

This absurd thought involuntarily popped into Lin Fan's mind.

Ten thousand? Or a hundred thousand?

He could no longer calculate it.

The shock of sudden wealth gave him an extremely surreal feeling.

So, I'm... already this rich now?

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing this sense of unreality.

Money was just a tool.

His will transformed into an invisible giant hand, beginning to rapidly sort and categorize everything in this ocean of treasures.

"Ten-Thousand-Year Star Iron, enough to pave a square, check."

"Void Dragon Bones, over a dozen complete sets in perfect condition, check."

"Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, found it, contained in a pool, check."

"..."

Following the requirements on the Formation blueprints, Lin Fan checked off the Materials one by one.

The accumulation of several hundred years of Black Sail's plundering was far more abundant than he had imagined.

The vast majority of Materials, rare enough to drive a great Sect mad, were tossed in corners here like trash.

Soon, he had found ninety-nine percent of the Materials.

Only one thing remained, and it was the most core item.

Lin Fan's consciousness searched through the entire storage space three times, then carefully scoured several other storage Magic Treasures.

Nothing.

"[realm beacon]..."

Lin Fan's brow furrowed slightly.

This was the most critical beacon for the reception Formation, used to lock onto the coordinates of a lower plane within the endless void.

Without it, the Formation was just a pile of scrap metal.

He immediately withdrew from the Storage Ring, went to the starship's main control console, and connected to the "Black Sail Eye" intelligence database.

"Search for [realm beacon]."

[Command confirmed, searching...]

A cold electronic voice sounded.

Soon, rows of information appeared on the light screen.

[realm beacon: Ultra-rare strategic-grade resource, uniformly cast by the ancient 'Immortal Qin' Empire, used to locate the three thousand lower worlds. Very few currently exist, mostly controlled by top-tier powers or official fleets for conscription or resource plundering.]

[Acquisition Method: No stable acquisition method.]

[Related Intelligence Records:]

[1. Three hundred years ago, the official fleet of the 'Sirius Star Region' used a [realm beacon] to conscript 300 million 'Human Cauldrons' from a lower world for a blood sacrifice to a Demon God...]

[2. Eighty years ago, the 'Scarlet Chain Demon Sect' offered a bounty for a [realm beacon], with no results to date...]

[3. Latest Intelligence: Seven days ago, the black market's 'Heavenly Star Pavilion' released news that a masterless [realm beacon] will be auctioned as the finale at its annual top-tier auction. Auction time: Two days from now. Location: Black Market Star.]

Finally, a clue.

Lin Fan's gaze fell on the last piece of intelligence.

Heavenly Star Pavilion... Black Market Star... He was just about to look deeper into the background of this "Heavenly Star Pavilion."

Suddenly, in the corner of the light screen, a new piece of intelligence automatically linked and analyzed by the "Black Sail Eye" flashed with a red warning light.

[Warning: Multiple highly-watched factions have been detected participating in this 'Heavenly Star Pavilion' auction.]

[Faction List: Heavenly Charm Sect, Scarlet Blood Alliance, Golden Rainbow Chamber of Commerce...]

Seeing the words "Heavenly Charm Sect," Lin Fan's eyes flickered slightly.

Trouble had found its own way to his door.

He didn't care and continued to let the AI dig deeper into the background of the "Heavenly Star Pavilion."

He needed to assess the risks of this operation.

[Conducting deep intelligence mining... Permissions confirmed... Decrypting high-level archived files...]

[File: No. K-073]

[Associated Faction: Heavenly Star Pavilion]

[Background Analysis: Heavenly Star Pavilion, ostensibly a neutral black market auction house, has a mysterious background and immense strength... Behind it, there are suspected traces of 'Shadow Hall' activity...]

[Note: This intelligence is unverified, sourced from the deceased 'Informant-73', reliability assessment: Medium.]

Shadow Hall.

Shadow Hall again.

A Heavenly Charm Sect that wanted to snatch Liu Qingqing's special spirit body.

A Heavenly Star Pavilion with the suspected shadow of the Shadow Hall behind it.

Now, they were all converging on a small auction to fight for a [realm beacon].

Things were becoming more and more interesting.

Lin Fan leaned back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.

A normal Cultivator of the "Steady Path" would, upon learning this news, have the first reaction of avoiding this whirlpool and seeking another way.

But Lin Fan was not.

Instead of wariness, a smile of... anticipation appeared on his face.

The more enemies there were, the stronger and more mysterious they were, the better.

That was the only way it would be fun.

Only then could it bring him enough of a... "surprise."

Furthermore, he was determined to get that [realm beacon].

"In that case, I'll go meet them."

Lin Fan murmured to himself.

Barging in? No, the risk was too high and didn't fit the principle of "safety."

Sneaking in? That wouldn't work either; the Heavenly Star Pavilion was heavily guarded, and he might not be able to succeed silently.

Then, only the last, and most simple and direct method remained.

Smash them with money.

With a fortune sufficient to drive any faction to despair, he would buy it openly and fairly.

To do this "safely," he needed a new identity.

An identity that wouldn't arouse anyone's suspicion, yet was weighty enough to hold the field.

Lin Fan quickly sketched an image in his mind.

An obscure yet immensely wealthy, eccentric, and arrogant mysterious Loose Cultivator.

He stood up and walked to the storage cabinet in the cabin.

From Black Skull's all-encompassing collection, he took out an unremarkable black robe and a silver mask that had no Spiritual Qi fluctuations but could block all Divine Sense probes.

He put on the robe and the mask.

In the mirror, a completely new figure was reflected.

His aura was restrained, his build ordinary, with only his eyes, visible through the mask's holes, as calm as a bottomless sea of stars.

Lin Fan walked to the pilot console, his slender fingers tracing across the star map as he entered a completely new set of coordinates.

Hum—

The sword-shaped starship's engine let out a low roar once more.

At the bow, space distorted slightly, and in the next moment, it quietly merged into the void, racing toward that lawless land where chaos and wealth intertwined.

On the navigation light screen, the cold text quietly displayed.

[New Target: Black Market Star]

[Estimated Arrival Time: Two days later]