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

His gaze turned westward, as if piercing through layers of space, and he saw the insurmountable barrier that stretched across the journey to the West, where turbulent waves surged, not even a goose feather could float, and reeds sank to the bottom.

"Could it have been obtained by the evil spirits there? The Wind Patrol Envoy also lost his life here."

The Bodhisattva had a thought and wanted to get up and go to investigate, but as soon as he moved, he stopped himself.

At the bottom of the Flowing Sand River, there lies a figure burdened with immense karma, the Curtain-Rolling General. He was personally demoted by the Jade Emperor and enlightened by Guanyin Bodhisattva, destined to become the disciple of the pilgrim on his journey to the West. This is a crucial link in the great calamity, where a single hair can affect the whole situation.

If he were to rashly intervene at this moment and venture into the bottom of the Flowing Sand River to search for lamp oil, he could easily disrupt the heavenly order and might even create unnecessary karmic entanglements with the Curtain-Rolling General, ruining the grand plan of spreading Buddhism to the east.

"That's enough."

Bodhisattva Lingji sighed and dissipated the divination light emanating from his fingertips.

"Although the lamp oil is precious, it is still just an external thing. Since it has fallen into the Flowing Sand River, it may be fate. It is not too late to make a plan when the pilgrim has subdued the Curtain-Rolling General and the cause and effect are settled."

With this thought in mind, the Bodhisattva stopped agonizing. He rode on auspicious clouds, accompanied by the Yellow Wind Monster, and headed straight for Mount Sumeru in the south.

……

At the bottom of the quicksand river, inside a temporary cave, Fan Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

A month had passed since his last seclusion.

For some time now, he has been in a deep meditation state, using the unique weak water environment of the Liusha River to slowly repair his internal injuries.

"His condition has finally stabilized."

He looked inward at himself, and although his soul still ached faintly, at least his life was no longer in danger.

Although the bottom of this quicksand river is devoid of spiritual energy and filled with violent, turbid air, it is an excellent hiding place for Fan Yuan.

The Weak Water can block most divine sense detection. Even if a powerful demon comes, it will be difficult to find him hiding deep in the mud and sand at the bottom of the river if he does not search deliberately.

Fan Yuan struggled to sit up and moved his stiff limbs. He casually rummaged through the mud and sand beside him, hoping to find some usable materials.

Suddenly, his fingertips touched something hard and cold.

Fan Yuan's heart stirred, and he dug the object out of the mud and sand. It was a few pieces of dull color and special texture.

Judging from its shape, it appears to be part of some kind of skull, with jagged edges, as if it had been crushed by tremendous force.

"This is……"

Fan Yuan raised an eyebrow, held the fragment in his palm, and carefully sensed it.

It felt cool to the touch, but not the chilling cold of the Weak Water. Instead, it was a coolness that penetrated straight to the soul. Within this coolness, there was a faint aura of an unyielding obsession that had endured countless reincarnations, as well as a trace of extremely faint yet pure spiritual energy of reincarnation.

These are definitely not the bones of ordinary monsters or mortals.

There's only one possibility for bones with such a unique aura to exist at the bottom of this shifting sand river.

A passage from the original work flashed through Fan Yuan's mind.

When Sha Wujing was a demon in the Flowing Sand River, he ate nine pilgrims. Sha Wujing strung the bones of those nine pilgrims into a necklace, hung it around his neck, and would take it out to play with in his spare time.

"These are fragments of the skulls of the previous nine pilgrims who went on pilgrimages to the West."

Fan Yuan immediately understood.

It must have been a fragment that Sha Wujing accidentally dropped while making the skull necklace, or that was washed here by the water.

This is good stuff.

The nine incarnations of the pilgrims were all reincarnations of Jin Chanzi. Although they did not achieve enlightenment, each incarnation harbored the grand vow to go to the Western Paradise to obtain the scriptures.

This vow has endured through nine generations and has long been ingrained in one's very bones, blood, and soul.

Fan Yuan tried to probe a wisp of his divine soul power into the fragment.

In an instant, a warm and peaceful aura flowed back into his soul, and under the soothing influence of this aura, his soul injuries miraculously healed slightly.

"It worked!"

A hint of joy flashed in Fan Yuan's eyes.

Although this fragment has little offensive power and cannot directly improve cultivation, the obsession and willpower contained within it are the supreme medicine for healing injuries to the soul and the Dao.

"An unexpected surprise."

Fan Yuan carefully put away the fragments, treating them as treasures. With these items, he could recover from his soul injuries at least by 30%.

In the days that followed, Fan Yuan began a long and tedious period of cultivation at the bottom of the dark river.

Every day, he would hold the skull fragments in his hands and meditate, absorbing the power of the vows within to nourish his soul. At the same time, he would circulate the "Qi-Guiding Technique" and mobilize the true meaning of the Weak Water to gradually devour the turbid water spiritual energy around him and repair his body.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye. Fan Yuan's injuries had healed by about 70-80%, and his cultivation had been stabilized at the Qi Refining Perfection stage, just one step away from the Spirit Refining stage.

On this day, Fan Yuan, who was in a meditative state, suddenly felt something.

Above the distant waters, a gentle yet boundless surge of Buddhist power descended without warning, instantly piercing through the barrier of the eight-hundred-mile-long Weak Water and sweeping across the river's surface.

Its aura was grand and compassionate, yet it also carried an undeniable majesty.

"Guanyin Bodhisattva?"

Fan Yuan felt a chill run down his spine and immediately stopped cultivating. He suppressed his aura to the extreme, even forcibly reducing his heartbeat to the lowest level. He was like a lifeless stone, huddled deep in the mud and sand.

Immediately afterwards, he sensed a violent demonic aura, which belonged to General Rolling Curtain, also known as Sha Wujing, who was entrenched in the middle of the Flowing Sand River.

Normally, this demonic energy is always filled with violence, resentment, and hunger, and it fluctuates violently every seven days due to the punishment of being pierced by ten thousand swords.

But at this moment, that violent demonic energy is rapidly calming down and receding.

Instead, a more balanced and peaceful atmosphere gradually emerged, and the malevolent energy that originally belonged to demons was completely washed away, transforming into a pure Buddhist Zen spirit.

Then, Fan Yuan sensed several other auras approaching.

A fiery, sun-like intensity, carrying an untamed spirit, belonged to Sun Wukong.

A sense of calm as a mountain, yet also revealing a hint of laziness and slickness, that's Pigsy.

There was another force, utterly ordinary, without any magical fluctuations, yet as resilient as silk, as if no force in the world could hinder its progress—that was Tang Sanzang.

Although Fan Yuan could not see what was happening above, he already knew it in his heart.

Sha Wujing was enlightened by the Bodhisattva.

He became Tang Sanzang's disciple, received the precepts, and was given a Dharma name, officially becoming a member of the pilgrimage team.

At this very moment, above the vast expanse of waves above his head, the main characters of the Journey to the West: Great Tribulation have finally assembled.

Fan Yuan held his breath and remained motionless.

He could sense that with Sha Wujing's return to his position, a massive torrent of fortune was surging westward from above. This was the will of Heaven, the Buddhist arrangement, and the general trend of the entire prehistoric world.

Faced with this torrent, he, a mere Qi Refining cultivator, was nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust.

But he was not afraid; instead, he felt a strange sense of peace.

The main storyline of Journey to the West is progressing steadily, and all eyes, all schemes, and all tribulations will revolve around the four travelers.

He, however, hid in the shadows beneath this torrent, silently accumulating strength in a corner unnoticed by anyone, seizing his own opportunity.

"Let's go, everyone, let's go."

Fan Yuan muttered to himself.

"You seek your scriptures, and I will testify to my immortality."

The best situation for now is for both sides to refrain from interfering with each other.

As those powerful auras crossed the river westward, the bottom of the Flowing Sand River returned to its former desolation and turbidity.

Fan Yuan closed his eyes again, gripped the skull fragment in his hand tightly, and entered a deep meditative state once more. He sensed an opportunity for a breakthrough!