Journey to the West: A clone sacrifices to the heavens, possessing boundless magical power.

Fan Yuan clenched his fist, feeling the explosive power within his body. He was confident that if he were to unleash the first level of the Mountain-Crushing Force now, its power would be at least twice that of before, and he would not fall into weakness after the strike.

His physical strength is already comparable to any other body-cultivating demon race of the same level.

At the same time, the feedback from the deaths of those clones, coupled with the nourishment of his soul by the monkey wine, made his soul exceptionally refined and resilient, far surpassing that of other cultivators of the same level.

With a thought, he summoned the [Primordial Mirror of All Forms].

On the antique mirror, the information has been updated:

[Host: Fan Yuan]

[Cultivation Level: Qi Refining Perfected]

[Technique: The Arousal Technique]

[Supernatural Power (Prototype): Mountain-Crushing Force (First Level)]

Lifespan: 50 years remaining

Looking at the fifty-year lifespan, Fan Yuan's eyes remained unmoved. Breakthroughs in the Qi Refining stage had a negligible effect on lifespan. To achieve true immortality, one had to defy the heavens step by step.

He stood up and walked out of the cave.

The morning sun shone warmly on him, and the crystal-clear stream in the valley reflected his resolute face.

Black Wind Mountain's scheme enabled him to complete the initial accumulation from mortal to cultivator, and also allowed him to truly see the tip of the iceberg of this world.

Elder Jinchi of Guanyin Temple, the Black Bear Spirit of Black Wind Mountain, Ling Xuzi... these demons who wreak havoc in their respective regions are nothing more than dust that can be wiped away at will in front of true gods and Buddhas.

And he, now, is not even a speck of dust.

Fan Yuan's gaze passed over the layers of mountains, looking towards the distant west.

Black Wind Mountain is now a thing of the past.

His next stop: Fuling Mountain, Yunzhan Cave.

There, there lies another predetermined cause and effect; there, there is Marshal Tianpeng, who once commanded 100,000 naval troops of the Milky Way, but was banished to the mortal realm for drunkenly harassing a fairy.

Pigsy!

The opportunities encountered on the journey to the West are the most crucial and abundant resources in this world. Each of the eighty-one tribulations is a calamity, but also an immense opportunity.

Every turmoil surrounding Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing... these people destined for tribulation may hold the key to a higher realm.

To achieve immortality, one must carefully seize one's own share during this great calamity that sweeps across the three realms.

Fan Yuan's eyes held an unprecedented determination; his path to immortality had only just begun.

……

Several days later, on the mountain road heading west in the Black Wind Mountain region.

A young man dressed in gray cloth, carrying a simple bag, was walking unhurriedly.

He looked back at Black Wind Mountain one last time, where the mountain range was no longer visible, only a vast expanse of blue sky. The once demonic mountains had fallen into complete silence, awaiting a new master.

Fan Yuan withdrew his gaze, his heart no longer stirred by anything.

Following this official road westward, crossing the border of Tibet, one can reach the area where Gao Laozhuang is located.

Meanwhile, that future Pigsy should still be living a carefree life, ruling the mountain as king in the Cloud Stack Cave of Fuling Mountain.

Marshal Tianpeng, a true orthodox figure of the Xuanmen sect, carries not only the nine-toothed rake forged by Laozi himself, but also the supreme Xuan Gong, one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals of Taoism, the "Thirty-Six Transformations of the Heavenly Generals."

That is the true orthodox method of immortals, the supreme method that points directly to the Great Dao, far surpassing anything he has learned so far.

This was Fan Yuan's next target.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his aura to the extreme, making him look like an ordinary traveler heading away along the road where the official road intersected with the mountains and forests.

The journey westward was long and lonely.

Several more days passed, and Fan Yuan had completely left the territory of Black Wind Mountain. One evening, he walked to a mountain valley and saw a village in the distance.

Fan Yuan intended to find a family to stay the night and inquire about the journey ahead, but as he stood at the village entrance, he sensed something was amiss.

It's too quiet.

It was dusk, a time when every household should be raising smoke from their chimneys, but the village was deathly silent, without a sound of human voices or barking dogs.

The air was still filled with a faint, almost imperceptible, pungent smell of blood, as well as a faint but unmistakable aura of demonic energy.

This demonic aura is not strong, and is even somewhat mixed. It doesn't seem like a powerful demon like the Black Bear Spirit who occupies a certain area. It's more like some kind of wild beast or monster.

Fan Yuan did not rush into the village. He retreated to a grove of trees outside the village. With a thought, the sparrows above flapped their wings and silently flew into the village.

From the air, most of the village's houses had collapsed. The sparrows flew directly to the center of the village, where there was a fairly large ancestral hall.

The source of the bloody smell is right here.

A sparrow landed on the eaves of the ancestral hall. Looking down, it saw that the stone steps at the entrance of the ancestral hall were littered with the corpses of villagers, and there was a pool of dark red blood that had not yet dried completely. Several obvious drag marks extended from the bloodstains all the way to the mountains and forests behind the village.

The chaotic demonic aura followed this trail, pointing towards the back mountain.

Without hesitation, Fan Yuan controlled his sparrow clone and followed the trail.

After passing through a sparse woodland, Sparrow soon discovered a shallow cave hidden by vines at the foot of a cliff on the back mountain. The eerie and bloody smell was coming from the cave.

A sparrow quietly landed on a branch above the cave entrance and peered inside.

Inside the cave, a large, muscular badger was feasting on a carcass that had been gnawed beyond recognition.

Its fur was grayish-brown, and its small eyes gleamed with a ferocious and cunning light. Its mouth was covered with bits of blood and flesh.

Judging from the demonic energy emanating from it, this badger demon's cultivation level is approximately at the late stage of Qi Refining.

It seemed to have only recently gained sentience, its demonic power was weak, and it acted entirely on animalistic instincts.

Just then, the badger demon, which was engrossed in its meal, suddenly stopped. It raised its head, its small eyes scanning the outside of the cave warily, and a low growl came from its throat.

It sensed an unfamiliar presence.

Although the sparrow clone had no cultivation, the wisp of divine thought that Fan Yuan had poured into it was ultimately no ordinary thing.

"hiss!"

The badger demon suddenly stood up on its hind legs and let out a threatening shriek in the direction of the sparrow. It clearly regarded the sparrow that was spying on it as a provocateur trying to steal its food.

The next moment, the badger demon kicked off with its hind legs, and its massive body shot straight at the sparrow above like a cannonball!

Fan Yuan felt a chill and immediately controlled the sparrow to flap its wings and fly high.

But this badger demon had an astonishingly high jumping ability. With a single leap, it soared more than three zhang high, its sharp claws carrying a gust of wind as it narrowly swept past the sparrows below.

Missing his first attack, the badger demon landed without pausing, twisting its waist and using the momentum to spring up again!

This time, the sparrow clone couldn't escape.

With a sharp crack, the badger demon's claws struck the sparrow's body hard. A few feathers fell from the air, and the tiny clone instantly turned into a cloud of blood mist.