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

He paused deliberately at this point.

"What's so special about this son-in-law?"

"Strange? That's really strange!" Manager Wang slapped his thigh. "It's said that the man is incredibly strong. He can plow the land as well as ten farmhands! All kinds of rough and heavy work are like child's play to him. At first, Grandpa Gao was overjoyed, but later he realized something was wrong."

"Something's not right?"

"His appetite!" Manager Wang gestured exaggeratedly. "He eats three to five pecks of rice and ten pounds of meat in one meal! What ordinary family could afford to feed such a glutton? And then, somehow, rumors started circulating that the son-in-law wasn't human at all, but a monster! A long snout, big ears, covered in black hair, a pig demon!"

"My goodness! A pig demon?" The people at the next table turned pale with fright. "Then Miss Gao is...?"

"Who says otherwise! That monster has locked Miss Gao in the backyard and won't let her see anyone. Old Master Gao is desperate and has no one to turn to. He's posting notices everywhere, looking for a powerful sorcerer to exorcise the demon!"

Upon hearing this, Fan Yuan paused slightly in the hand holding the teacup.

He lowered his head, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

Gao Village, the Pig Demon, Recruiting a Live-in Son-in-Law...

The timing of the plot perfectly matched his prediction. The former Marshal Tianpeng should be entrenched near Gao Village at this moment, waiting for his pilgrim master.

Fan Yuan was certain.

He paid for the tea and left the tea stall without saying a word.

Directly contacting that pig demon is too risky. Even though Marshal Tianpeng has been demoted to the mortal realm and lost his magic power, his physical strength and the mystery of his supernatural abilities are far beyond what a cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining can contend with.

We need to come up with a more reliable solution.

Since Grandfather Gao is looking for someone to subdue the demon, perhaps... we can start by investigating from within the Gao family.

A plan slowly took shape in his mind.

It is located in a secluded mountain valley, thirty miles away from Gao Laozhuang.

Fan Yuan built a temporary cave dwelling.

Throughout his journey, he did not neglect his cultivation. Every night, he would take out monkey wine and drink it, using the pure spiritual power contained within to repeatedly hone his magical power and physical body.

Now, his foundation of perfected Qi cultivation is incredibly solid, and he may only need an opportunity to reach the next realm.

But he knew that now was not the time to seek a breakthrough.

He needed to make more thorough preparations for the upcoming events at Gao Lao Zhuang.

He sat cross-legged and took out the inferior spirit stones he had plundered from the Black Wind Cave alchemy room, along with a pinch of alchemical ash, from his storage bag.

He wanted to create another humanoid clone with cultivation to infiltrate Gao Village for him.

Upon communicating with the [Primordial Myriad Forms Mirror] in the sea of ​​consciousness, in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a completely new figure appeared before Fan Yuan.

He was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He was muscular, with dark skin, calloused hands and feet, and a simple and honest expression on his face.

He was dressed in a coarse cloth garment covered in patches, and looked like a farmer who had fled from place to place due to famine.

This clone possesses the cultivation level of the early stage of Qi Refining. Perhaps because the spiritual materials used were all defective, its aura appears particularly mixed, and its strength is far inferior to that of a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Refining.

As soon as Fan Yuan had a thought, the honest-looking man opened his eyes and respectfully bowed to Fan Yuan's true form.

"I'll call you Iron Ox!" Fan Yuan looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction, thinking to himself, "The setting is that you are a refugee from the north, homeless, who wants to go to Gao Village to find a job as a farmhand to make a living."

Once everything was ready, Fan Yuan left the mountain valley and led Tie Niu towards Gao Lao Zhuang.

Outside Gao Laozhuang, at the side gate of the Gao Family Compound.

Tie Niu stood somewhat awkwardly at the door, carrying a tattered bundle on his back. His eyes were honest and simple, and his face showed signs of fatigue from a long journey.

"What are you doing here?" A steward with a goatee poked his head out from inside the door, looking him over impatiently.

"Master Steward," Tie Niu bowed quickly, "My name is Tie Niu. I fled here from the north during a famine. My family suffered a disaster and we have no way to make a living. I heard that Gao Lao Zhuang is a wealthy family, so I came here to find work and earn a living. I can do anything, and I have plenty of strength!"

The steward saw that he was indeed strong and didn't seem like a cunning person, especially since people in the village were in a state of panic and many servants were quitting under various pretexts, and there was a shortage of manpower.

He rolled his eyes and pointed to a few sacks of grain piled up in the corner of the yard, saying, "Talk is cheap. You go and carry those sacks of grain to the granary in the backyard. If you can do it, you can stay."

"Alright!" Tie Niu smiled憨厚ly and walked to the grain bag.

He took a deep breath, exerted his strength in his waist and back, and steadily stacked the three bags of grain on his shoulder, hoisting them up. His expression remained unchanged, and he walked steadily towards the backyard, as if he were carrying three bundles of cotton instead of three hundred pounds of grain.

The manager stared wide-eyed.

When Tie Niu returned empty-handed after putting the grain into the warehouse, the manager's attitude had changed.

"Good lad, you really are born with superhuman strength!" He nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, you can stay here. Go to the back garden and do some rough work like chopping wood and carrying water with Zhang Datou. Remember, there are rules in the manor: no one is allowed to approach the Third Miss's Moon Gazing Pavilion. If you dare to trespass, I'll skin you alive!"

"I understand, I understand!" Tie Niu nodded repeatedly, a grateful smile on his face.

In this way, Fan Yuan's clone successfully obtained a legitimate identity within the Gao family.

Meanwhile, Fan Yuan's main body wandered alone near Gao Lao Zhuang for several days, and finally found a trace of a cultivator in a remote town.

He followed a medicine merchant who was in a hurry and whose body was filled with faint magical energy. After many twists and turns, they arrived at an inconspicuous pawnshop at the end of the town.

The pharmacist knocked on the pawnshop door five times in a rhythm of three long knocks and two short knocks.

The door opened a crack, and the medicine merchant slipped inside.

Fan Yuan memorized the code and waited outside for half an hour before stepping forward and knocking on the wooden door in the same way.

The waiter inside sized him up a few times, and seeing that he was a stranger, he looked wary.

Upon seeing this, Fan Yuan immediately handed over two spirit stones of relatively good quality without making a sound. The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment before stepping aside to let him in.

Inside the pawnshop, there was a hidden world.

After passing through a narrow passageway, Fan Yuan's vision suddenly opened up. It was a small underground market with only a dozen or so stalls. Most of the cultivators coming and going were rogue cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, each with a mixed aura and a wary expression.

Fan Yuan didn't look around much and went straight to the largest-looking shop, whose sign read "Baibaoge" (meaning "Treasure Pavilion").

"Fellow Daoist, would you like to buy or sell something?" A shrewd old man with a mustache approached.

"Sell some materials," Fan Yuan said succinctly, taking off the cloth bag from his back and placing it on the counter.

He laid out the complete wolf pelt, four wolf bones, a small bottle of wolf demon blood essence, and the badger demon's pelt, bones, and demon core in that order.

A hint of surprise flashed in the goatee-bearded old man's eyes. Although these materials were not of high grade, they had been processed cleanly and efficiently.