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

"How strange! Could it be that the local earth god is a glutton, and secretly caught and ate the fruit that Old Sun knocked down?"

Sun Wukong was instantly enraged. He paused with his golden cudgel, stomped his foot, chanted the mantra "Om," made a hand seal, and pointed sharply at the ground.

"Get out of here, you old man, on this land!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground churned up, and a white-bearded old man, only about three feet tall and leaning on a cane, cautiously crawled out and knelt down with a thud.

"Great Sage, please calm your anger! This humble deity is the local earth god of Wuzhuang Temple on Longevity Mountain. I pay my respects to the Great Sage!"

Sun Wukong grabbed the local earth god by the collar, lifted him into the air, and asked fiercely, "You old man, how dare you! I felled a ginseng fruit, and you dared to secretly steal it and eat it? Spit it out right now, or I'll smash your earth god temple to pieces with my cudgel!"

The Earth God was terrified and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "Great Sage, you're innocent! Even if I had ten thousand lives, I wouldn't dare steal this celestial treasure! Great Sage, you don't know this, but this ginseng fruit is a spiritual root of heaven and earth since the beginning of time, born from the five elements, extremely precious, and subject to the principle of mutual restraint among the five elements!"

"What do you mean by the Five Elements' mutual restraint? Explain clearly!" Sun Wukong frowned.

"This fruit falls when it encounters gold, withers when it encounters wood, dissolves when it encounters water, scorches when it encounters fire, and burrows into the earth when it encounters soil!" the Earth God explained quickly. "The Great Sage just knocked it down with a golden mallet. When it landed and touched the soil, it immediately burrowed into the earth's veins. Moreover, the soil beneath Wuzhuang Temple, blessed by the Great Immortal's magic power, has been hardened as fine iron over 47,000 years. With my meager cultivation, I can't even burrow in, let alone catch the fruit underground and steal it!"

After hearing this, Sun Wukong stomped his foot on the ground.

Sure enough, the soil on the surface seemed soft, but in fact, just an inch below it was as hard as a rock, with faint array patterns flowing through it.

"I see. It's because it gets stuck in the soil. I misunderstood you."

Sun Wukong released his grip, threw the earth on the ground, and said, "Get lost."

"Thank you, Great Sage! Thank you, Great Sage!" The Earth God felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and transformed into a wisp of green smoke as he disappeared back underground.

Once Sun Wukong understood the characteristics of the fruit, he became less careless.

He took off his cloth shirt, lifted the collar and held it in front of his chest, and leaped up to the treetop again.

This time, he caught it from below by pulling on his clothes with one hand, and swung the golden mallet with the other.

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

With three taps, three ginseng fruits landed steadily in his clothes, without getting a speck of dirt on them.

"Got it. Go back and split the loot with that idiot."

Sun Wukong put away his golden cudgel, gathered the fruit, and prepared to leap down from the treetop and leave.

……

at the same time.

In an inconspicuous corner outside the Wuzhuang Temple, Fan Yuan was silently calculating the time.

"According to the original story, Sun Wukong should have finished picking the fruits by now."

Fan Yuan took a deep breath, and the [Primordial Myriad Forms Mirror] within his sea of ​​consciousness shone brightly.

"Deploy advanced clone, Ying Lingzi! Under the ginseng fruit tree in the back garden of Wuzhuang Temple!"

However, just as the deployment was about to be completed!

"boom!"

Fan Yuan felt a deafening roar in his mind, as if a towering mountain had crashed down on his soul.

The light on the precious mirror flickered violently, and the spatial passage was forcibly severed by a vast, incomparable, and extremely ancient force!

"What's going on?!"

Fan Yuan's true form suddenly opened his eyes, let out a muffled groan, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

He quickly used the [Primordial Myriad Appearances Mirror] to sense the state of his clone, Ying Lingzi.

Ying Lingzi did not appear under the ginseng fruit tree.

Instead, it was forced out of the core area of ​​the back garden by that enormous force and landed outside a moon gate on the outskirts of the back garden!

Between Ying Lingzi and the ginseng fruit tree, there was a layer of pale golden array light screen that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, yet indestructible.

Fan Yuan broke out in a cold sweat.

"It's the protective array of Wuzhuang Temple and the original restriction of the ginseng fruit tree!"

He realized it instantly.

The restrictions in Aoki Ward City did not prevent him from casting clones at will, but he seriously underestimated the power of Zhenyuan Daxian's dojo!

This is the foundation of the ancestor of earth immortals; the level of restrictions surrounding the ginseng fruit tree is ridiculously high.

Although the [Primordial Myriad Forms Mirror] is miraculous, Fan Yuan's current cultivation level is too low to forcefully penetrate this level of formation to launch his clone.

"That was close..."

Fan Yuan felt a chill run down his spine, a wave of fear washing over him.

Fortunately, his previous plan was cautious enough.

He had wondered if he could simply send his clone under the ginseng fruit tree, grab the fruit, and run away? Or could he have his clone eat the fruit right under the tree?

In retrospect, that idea was downright suicidal.

Not to mention that Zhenyuan Daxian was still inside the temple earlier. Once his clone triggered the restriction, it would be instantly locked by the Daxian's divine sense, without even a chance to self-destruct.

Even if Zhenyuan Daxian is not here now, the formation's automatic counterattack is enough to make the deployment fail. To put it another way, even if the clone eats the fruit, the clone's feedback rate is extremely low, and it is impossible to fully feed back the heaven-defying effects of the ginseng fruit to the main body. It would be a complete waste.

"The range and accuracy of the clones' deployment are severely affected by the level of external formations and restrictions."

Fan Yuan firmly remembered this lesson: this world is fraught with danger at every turn, and any careless action could lead to utter ruin.

Fortunately, although the deployment deviated from the expected direction, Ying Lingzi eventually entered the inner courtyard of Wuzhuang Temple.

Moreover, there were no outsiders in the back garden at that moment.

Fan Yuan steadied himself and immediately immersed his consciousness completely into Ying Lingzi's body.

……

The rear garden of Wuzhuang Temple, outside the Moon Gate.

Ying Lingzi steadied herself and straightened her slightly disheveled blue Taoist robe.

Through the faint array of light, he could clearly see that Sun Wukong was carrying three fruits and preparing to jump down from the tree.

Don't miss out.

Ying Lingzi stood outside the door, gathered her inner energy, and softly called out into the formation.

"Is that Brother Wukong in the tree?"

The sound wasn't loud, but it condensed into a line and reached Sun Wukong's ears.

How perceptive was Sun Wukong?

Upon hearing the call, the fur on his entire body stood on end.

"Who?!"

Sun Wukong twisted his body in mid-air and landed steadily.

He held the fruit-laden collar of his shirt to his chest with one hand, while instantly drawing his golden cudgel from his ear with the other.

hum!

The golden cudgel emitted a buzzing sound and pointed directly towards the direction outside the moon gate.

At the same time, Sun Wukong's eyes widened, and two dazzling golden lights shot out from the depths of his eyes.

Sharp eyes!

Under these two golden rays, all illusions in the world have nowhere to hide.

Sun Wukong's gaze swept over Ying Lingzi's entire body as if it were a tangible object.

Bone age: less than 100 years old.

Cultivation level: Late stage of Qi Refining.

The physical body is neither a transformation of a demon nor a manifestation of the primordial spirit.

"How could a mere mortal cultivator in the Qi Refining stage appear in the inner courtyard of Wuzhuang Temple? And how could he approach here so quietly?"