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

Ever since they encountered the White Bone Demon disguised as Madam Bai at the teahouse, Fan Yuan and his clone Shen Feng have not stepped out of their room.

In the past few days, Fan Yuan has not been idle. He has put aside all the outside noise and rumors in the market, and his whole mind is immersed in a deduction.

The plan regarding the ginseng fruit of Wuzhuang Temple.

The Great Tribulation of Journey to the West is a grand trend of heaven and earth, and Wuzhuang Temple, as a key link in it, is at the center of the vortex of entangled cause and effect.

To try and seize the ginseng fruit right under the nose of Zhen Yuanzi, the ancestor of earth immortals, is nothing short of a pipe dream.

The slightest mistake could lead to death and the annihilation of one's spiritual essence.

"The plan is risky, but there is a glimmer of hope."

Fan Yuan slowly opened his eyes, a sharp light flashing deep within his pupils.

After several days of deduction, taking into account the timeline of Sun Wukong knocking down the ginseng fruit tree in the original work, Qingfeng and Mingyue's character flaws, and the gap in Zhen Yuanzi's time going to Shangqing Heaven to listen to the lecture on Hunyuan Dao Fruit, an extremely bold preliminary plan was finally finalized.

The secret about the Bodhi Patriarch in "Journey to the West" flashed through his mind.

When Sun Wukong became a disciple of the Xieyue Sanxing Cave, Patriarch Bodhi said that his disciples would be named according to twelve characters: "Guang, Da, Zhi, Hui, Zhen, Ru, Xing, Hai, Ying, Wu, Yuan, Jue".

The world of Journey to the West is unfathomable, and the identity of the Bodhi Patriarch remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Three Realms.

Some say he is the Western Daoist Zhunti, some say he is an incarnation of the Buddha, and others speculate that he is a reclusive and powerful being.

But he taught far more than just Sun Wukong as a disciple.

Where did those senior brothers with the names Guang, Da, Zhi, and Hui go?

This is a blank in the original work.

It's clearly impossible that they all died of old age.

The methods taught by Patriarch Bodhi were all about achieving immortality. Sun Wukong was able to cultivate into a Taiyi Golden Immortal in just a few years. His fellow disciples entered the sect even earlier, and no matter how poor their aptitude, they could not have disappeared into the long river of time in obscurity.

Unless, they have all hidden themselves or changed their identities, scattered throughout the Three Realms, becoming the backbone of certain powerful forces, such as Guanyin Bodhisattva.

There's also Zhen Yuanzi, who is known as the ancestor of earth immortals. He only worships Heaven and Earth, and treats even the Three Pure Ones and the Four Emperors as equals. Why would such a powerful being become sworn brothers with Sun Wukong?

Was it simply because Sun Wukong knocked down the ginseng fruit tree, or because of Guanyin Bodhisattva's influence?

Could it be that Zhen Yuanzi knew Sun Wukong's background?

In fact, Zhen Yuanzi himself had intricate connections with Bodhi Patriarch.

"What if Zhen Yuanzi was also a disciple of Patriarch Bodhi, or an old friend, or even... Zhen Yuanzi's apprentice?"

After a moment of wild speculation, Fan Yuan's mind stirred, and from the depths of his consciousness, the ancient and weathered [Primordial Myriad Appearances Mirror] slowly emerged.

"My myriad forms are the foundation of my existence, but I have not yet fully grasped the intricacies of them."

Fan Yuan took a deep breath and forced out a drop of his life essence blood. The essence blood instantly entered his sea of ​​consciousness and landed in the [Primordial Myriad Appearances Mirror].

At the same time, he took out a pile of miscellaneous spiritual materials from his storage bag. These were all defective products that he had not sold, including broken sword tips, dried spiritual herb roots, and even a few pieces of unknown animal bones.

"go!"

With a low shout, these worthless spiritual materials were drawn into the mirror by an invisible suction force.

hum!

The Primordial Mirror trembled slightly, and after a moment, a body with a common face appeared in the mirror.

[Intermediate clone successfully formed!]

Current number of clones: three

[Account feedback rate: 20%]

Race: Human

[Cultivation Level: Early Stage of Qi Refining]

Delivery area: within a radius of twenty li (approximately 10 kilometers).

Fan Yuan's heart skipped a beat. The feedback rate and projection range of his clones had doubled. When he broke through to the Refining Spirit stage, the number of his clones increased, and he vaguely sensed that other aspects would also change accordingly. Now, his premonition has indeed come true.

Looking at the new clone in the mirror, it is at the early stage of Qi Refining.

This was originally a test subject for him to verify his conjecture. Although it was deep inside the market and there were restrictions to conceal his aura, if he directly placed his clone here, it might attract unnecessary prying and even expose his secrets.

He controlled this clone and activated the Qi-Gathering Technique. In an instant, the sparse spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the room began to converge on this clone. Although the speed was extremely slow, like a trickle, it was continuous.

"So, not only can clones stay inside the mirror, but they can also absorb spiritual energy from the outside world to cultivate!"

Fan Yuan's eyes lit up. For the next three days, he and Shen Feng's clone stopped cultivating and simply observed the test subject quietly.

Spiritual energy gradually accumulated within the clone, and the faint vortex of energy in the dantian slowly grew stronger.

Only when the spiritual power within this clone reached the full state of the early stage of Qi Refining did a resolute glint flash in Fan Yuan's eyes.

"That's about it!"

With a thought, Fan Yuan's clone body suddenly disintegrated, turning into specks of spiritual light and dissipating in the mirror.

Immediately after the avatar died, the [Primordial Mirror of All Forms] trembled once more.

This clone was a hastily made product, without any training, so naturally it had no valuable memory fragments or insights into cultivation techniques. Its goal from the very beginning was option one.

"Choose, cultivation initiation."

A faint, extremely pure spiritual energy appeared out of thin air in Fan Yuan's meridians.

This spiritual energy was pure and gentle, and it directly merged into his dantian without needing to be refined.

The spiritual power within Fan Yuan's body, which was not yet fully replenished, visibly increased in strength in an instant.

"It actually works!"

Fan Yuan's eyes shone brightly. At present, the cultivation level of his clones has not surpassed that of his main body, and their number is not large. However, if they accumulate little by little in the future, even if each clone has only been cultivating for a short time and the spiritual energy it provides is meager, the quantitative change will eventually lead to a qualitative change, which will greatly benefit him in breaking through his bottleneck and improving his cultivation.

However, at this stage, the clones are more useful as a source of spiritual energy, much like a human-shaped elixir.

"If I were to create more clones in the future, and have them cultivate diligently day and night to accumulate spiritual power, then once my main body is exhausted, I could instantly return to my peak condition with just a thought!"

The tactical value of this is simply immeasurable.

However, it is unrealistic to think that this will allow one to break through the bottleneck and reach a higher realm. Unless one finds a precious spiritual material in the future and directly condenses a clone whose cultivation level far exceeds that of the original body, or, like at the Guanyin Temple last time, finds a special pill refined by a black bear and lets the clone consume it and explode, using the cultivation level after death to feed back to the original body, thus breaking through a small realm...

Suppressing his excitement, Fan Yuan closed his eyes again. The experiment had been successful. He took out a jade bottle from his storage bag; it was a Blood Restoration Pill.

Over the next few days, the room was filled with the aroma of medicine. Fan Yuan, like an old monk in deep meditation, gradually replenished his depleted essence and blood.

Late on the seventh night, Fan Yuan suddenly opened his eyes. At this moment, his energy and spirit had reached their peak.

"The time has come."

Although it was late at night, the area in the direction of Longevity Mountain was not dark; instead, it was bathed in a bluish-green light.

Deep within the earth, a muffled rumble could be faintly heard. This was not the earth dragon turning over, but rather a sign that the earth's spiritual energy had accumulated to its limit and was beginning to burst forth.

This is the Earth Spirit Tide that occurs once every 360 years at Longevity Mountain.

For the inner disciples of Wuzhuang Temple, this might just be a trivial matter of activating the mountain-protecting array to block out impurities, but for the creatures on the outskirts of Longevity Mountain, it was a feast.

"Go."

Upon hearing this, Shen Feng turned around, picked up the storage bag he had prepared and placed it at his waist. He changed his blue Taoist robe into a coarse linen garment, with the cuffs and trouser legs tightly bound, making him look like a lowly spiritual plant grower who made a living in the mountains year-round.