Tianyi once again realized the greatness of wealth. Compared to spiritual cultivation, where it was more important to focus on the process and the concepts, martial cultivation was mainly about using as many resources as possible to beef yourself up—kind of like steroids. Now that was a thought Tianyi couldn't erase from his mind.
Even with Tianyi's current resources, it was entirely possible to raise the clone's cultivation into the Worlding Merging Realm, the Unityh Realm martial equivalent, through brute force if he wanted to. But that would result in a short-lived clone, so Tianyi didn't.
The current Donghai Longzi was bursting with power. Even another Foundation Establishment Disciple would find their hearts palpitating when facing him. Honestly, the amount of resources Tianyi jammed into Longzi was overboard for his realm, but he would soon enter the Acupoint Opening Realm, so that was a moot point.
Tianyi brought Donghai Longzi to a different clearing than the one he used to create him. He wanted to test something. During Juedai Fenghua's Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, the tribulation had aimed for him. Tianyi wanted to know whether it was because he was in the vicinity or whether the change occurred because Fenghua was his clone. So he deliberately used a different clearing to minimize any lingering effect his presence had.
His dragon clone bore the brunt of the first bolt of tribulation lightning or at least attempted to. Donghai Longzi's face paled as he activated his body strengthening technique. Scales began to cover his body like armor. Tianyi felt his nonexistent heart beat with trepidation as his clone continued to undertake his tribulation.
As Tianyi feared, there was something wrong with his clone's Heavenly Tribulation. The strength of the Acupoint Opening Heavenly Tribulation surpassed the limits and was closer to a Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation in power. Tianyi had never heard of such an occurrence. Not once had he seen a clone undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation that was beyond its realm. No matter what, Tianyi had to intervene unless he wanted his clone to perish and watch all his hard work go down the drain.
With a sigh, Tianyi entered the range of his clone's Heavenly Tribulation. The instant he stepped within tribulation's range, the air changed. The black clouds rumbled as lightning thundered even more powerfully.
The heavenly tribulation's remaining tribulation lightning bolts all descended one after the other and constructed another tribulation lightning giant. Tianyi sighed as he watched with unamused eyes and even placed his palm on his face. "Is that the only thing you can do? I know they say third times a charm, but you're seriously just repeating the same thing over and over again, aren't you?"
In response, the tribulation giant thundered as if roaring at Tianyi's insolence. Tianyi's only response was to flip a bird at the sky. He even felt embarrassed for the Heavenly Dao, using the same trick over and again. With a sigh, Tianyi placed his hand out towards the tribulation giant, and a character for "seal (封)" appeared on his palm. The tribulation giant froze as if it was a bug caught in a spider's web. "If you keep doing the same stuff over and over again, It'll become useless in front of me."
No matter how much the tribulation giant squirmed and struggled, it was unable to break free from Tianyi's restriction. Tianyi formed a hand seal with his other hand, with several characters appearing and disappearing on his palm. The tribulation giant roared in defiance as the sword in its hand was ripped and disintegrated into pure electricity.
The electricity still held the tribulation essence, so Tianyi funneled it towards the Longzi. Under Tianyi's control, it was at a far more manageable level, allowing his clone to use it to temper his body without the need to activate any of his defense. The tribulation giant roared in indignity at Tianyi's actions, its howls synchronizing with the thundering clouds. But what could it do? The Heavenly Dao was bound by rules, and it had already used a loophole to funnel all the possible power it could for Longzi's Heavenly Tribulation.
Under this mockery, Donghai Longzi easily transcended his Acupoint Opening Heavenly Tribulation despite the complication at the beginning. The heavenly tribulation formed giant could only roar in indignity as it dispersed unwillingly. Despite his clone transcending its heavenly tribulation, Tianyi was not one bit happy.
Not only was the issue with his Earth memories, but it was likely that his clones would be facing heavenly tribulations that were above their grade. He didn't know whether it was because he, the main body, was at the Nascent Soul Realm or whether the Heavenly Dao used some other loophole. But whatever the reason, Tianyi couldn't allow his clone to undergo their heavenly tribulation without his supervision. And he was still unsure whether his first clone was alive or not.
Once they reached the Nascent Soul Realm or Soul Nourishing Realm, Tianyi could allow them to undergo their Unity or World Merging Heavenly Tribulation. But he didn't plan on that. What if after his clone entered the Unity Realm and caused his own Unity Realm Heavenly Tribulation to become more powerful? He, the main body, was still most important. Besides, as long as he was powerful enough, didn't it mean it guaranteed his clones success in passing the heavenly tribulation?
When Tianyi returned to the imperial palace, he saw his mother waiting for him.
"Congratulations, Yi'er. Your first clone has entered the Acupoint Opening Realm." At those words, Tianyi inwardly sighed in relief. Although told himself to trust his mother, he still had some reservation in his heart. The human heart was truly hard to predict.
His mother, Mengfei, then went into a long speech concerning how Tianyi should govern his clones and avoid walking into the common pitfalls. When Tianyi wasn't paying attention, Daoyi had somehow joined him in listening to Mengfei's speech as preparation in case she also wanted to create a clone. If Tianyi didn't know any better, he would have thought that his mother had a clone of her own.
Tianyi secretly sighed in relief when his mother was done lecturing. The information was crucial and very informative, but it was given in the most tedious and monotonous fashion possible by man... or woman. However, Tianyi's heart skipped a beat when he saw what his mother did next.
Mengfei raised one of her dainty hands up, with the back facing Tianyi, and curled it into a fist. To Tianyi's horror, Mengfei raised her middle finger up. Slight tilting her head, Mengfei asked. "Yi'er, what does this mean? I saw you doing it toward the Heavenly Tribulation. Is it an unknown hand seal?"
01DdtVw.png [https://i.imgur.com/01DdtVw.png]
Tianyi quickly placed his hand over his mother's and forced the middle finger down. Just as he was about to explain, his body froze. Tianyi recalled how his mother disallowed him to use any vulgar words if he were to inform her of the gesture's true meaning. There was no doubt he would be in for another lecture. Tianyi's mind whirled at unprecedented speed to find a solution to his current conundrum.
A light bulb lit up in Tianyi's mind.
"It's a special gesture, only meant for enemies you absolutely despise," Tianyi said.
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Mengfei still seemed slightly confused. "Why did you use it when facing the heavenly tribulation?"
Tianyi gnashed his teeth to show his hate and further convince his mother. "That's because the Heavenly Dao is my absolute nemesis. Isn't it the worse? It sends tribulation lightning at me at the most random times, and my clone's heavenly tribulation is abnormal because of it. The Heavenly Dao is absolutely hateful!"
Tianyi inwardly released the breath he had been holding when he saw his mother accept it. But it didn't last long as he heard Daoyi's giggle. Daoyi gave Tianyi a knowing look, before giggling even harder. His pupil shrunk into needle points as he turned towards Daoyi. Luckily, Daoyi didn't seem to have realized his true thoughts as her giggle turned into full-blown laughter.
Was Daoyi only laughing because of his reaction to Mengfei's gesture? Or did she know the meaning of the gesture his mother had used? If it were the former, then it would be nothing. But if it was the latter...
Tianyi's eyes narrowed as he glanced at Daoyi's laughing form. He recalled when he first saw Daoyi and was struck by the melancholy due to her face reminding him of a person on Earth, resulting in his reminiscing his time on Earth. Although he wasn't born with the same features of his life on Earth, that didn't mean other reincarnator didn't.
It seemed more and more likely that Daoyi was also a reincarnator. If it was true, and Xi Ri was also a reincarnator, then the three of them being so close was quite a coincidence. Tianyi couldn't help but think that this had been planned, but he immediately shook his head at the thought.
How could that mysterious person be sure that his mother would birth a reincarnator like him? Xi Ri was a happenstance. It was only by luck that he was Mengfei's nephew. Less need to be said about Daoyi. If it weren't for him noticing her, Daoyi would have never come to Buzhou Immortal Sect as his junior sister.
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Donghai Longzi stretched his body once he was a fair distance away from the imperial capital and, more importantly, Tianyi. "Man, freedom sure is nice. If possible, I really don't want to want to return to the main body unless necessary. Who wants to be a servant even if it's to the main body?"
After entering the Acupoint Opening Realm, Longzi had stayed at the imperial capital for a bit longer as he raised his spiritual cultivation. Only after he entered the Core Formation Realm did Tianyi allow Longzi to leave. Before leaving, Tianyi had given Longzi enough items and resources to last him until the Soul Nourishing Realm and slightly beyond, just in case something happened to him like Fenghua. "I thought for sure main body would give me a name with the "Yi" or "Tian" character, but I guess he gave up when the first clone chose Juedai Fenghua as her name."
As part of the arrangements by Tianyi, Longzi was currently clad in dull gold armor. Longzi forgone the helmet since it blocked his vision, and it just wasn't as cool. He blamed the main body for this vanity defect in his personality. All in all, he looked like a valiant general.
A broad saber was sheathed on his waist. Originally, Tianyi planned for Donghai Longzi to wield a spear, but after he clashed with Longwei, Tianyi's understand of the saber had increased tremendously. It was skewed towards the Dragon Emperor's Saber Arts, and so Tianyi went with the flow and made Donghai Longzi focus on the saber. He was created with the Dragon Emperor's blood essence as the base and cultivated the Dragon Emperor Fist, making him more like the Dragon Emperor didn't matter much anyway.
Days later, Longzi stopped his immortal boat when he saw a commotion. A group of five cultivators, most likely of the devilish way, were chasing a lone woman. The woman's clothes were ruffed up, but she was otherwise unharmed. The woman saw Longzi's boat, and excitement appeared in her eyes as she flew towards him. "Fellow daoist, please save me from these fiends!"
Longzi cracked his neck. Finding himself in such a cliche situation, he was happy to oblige. It just so happened that he was itching to test out how strong he was.
Placing his immortal boat inside his spatial ring, Longzi blocked the five men with his body. He was not standing on a saber but using the Cloud Treading Boots artifact that Tianyi forged in order to walk on air. He raised an eyebrow when their eyes gleam with greed when they saw his spatial ring. He unsheathed his saber and no longer hid his domineering aura that obviously surpassed the five men.
The five men consisted of two Core Formation Masters, one in the mid-stage with the other in the early stage and three Foundation Establishment Disciples. Judging from their poor equipment, Longzi concluded that they were among the weaker ones, especially compared to the geniuses he had seen in the main body's memories. His aura was stronger than the mid Core Formation Master despite having just stepped into the Core Formation Realm!
"Thank you, brave hero. These fiends saw my beauty and attempted to ravished me! I was unwilling and ran away. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know what I would've done!" The woman was of decent beauty, but every gesture seemed to contain traces of enticement.
Longzi shrugged as the woman neared him. "Don't get too close. You'll get in the way." He heartlessly said. She was undoubtedly beautiful, but he had seen far more beautiful women. Even so, the woman still neared him. Longzi shrugged. If she got caught in the battle, it was her fault.
Cling!
The sound of metal scraping against metal rang in the sky. Longzi's eyes widened and glared towards the woman who had taken out a stilleto and attempted to backstab him literally. The woman's eyes were still filled with glee at her preconceived thoughts of success. Unfortunately for her, Longzi's golden armor only appeared like an ordinary artifact, but the materials used to create it were of rank four and five, Nascent Soul and Unity Realm ranked.
She never had a chance to express any other emotion as Longzi turned around and severed her head from her body, her face frozen in the triumph of success. Longzi turned around towards the five men, who had similar expressions to the woman, a slight smile on his face as he tried to rein in his rage.
"I originally just wanted to test out my techniques against some vagrants, but never did I expect the person I saved would backstab me. That woman is actually part of your group, isn't she? I never expected that I would be lured by a honey trap!" Longzi kept his smile, but the anger behind his words could not be more evident.
"Sixth Sister!" The men cried out in shock and sadness. They turned their wrath-filled gazed towards Longzi. Whether it was actually for the woman's death or because their plan had failed, Longzi didn't know and didn't care.
Longzi instantly appeared in front of the five men, his saber clad in a black aura and in midswing. The two Core Formation Masters were able to react in time and dodge. The three Foundation Establishment Disciples were not so lucky and directly bifurcated at their waist in a single swing.
"Third brother, fourth brother, fifth brother!" The two remaining Core Formation Masters shouted in grief and charged at Longzi.
But even two against one, Longzi did not fall at a disadvantage. Rather, with more time, his advantage even increased. With each swing, the power of his saber increased, becoming swifter and heavier. With a bang, both Core Formation Masters were knocked back.
"Boss, hold him down! I'll use my secret move to eliminate him!"
"Alright, Second Brother!"
Longzi raised his guard as the mid Core Formation Master charged towards him. What happened next caused Longzi to gape in shock. The boss of the vagrants rushed at him with everything he had, burning his blood essence to temporarily increased his strength. Like a mad man, he continuously attacked Longzi and dropped all his defenses.
"Second Brother, are you still not ready!?" The boss shouted even as he felt his strength began to dip after reaching the peak from burning his blood essence.
"He ran away. Look behind you," Longzi said, his tone incredulous.
"Hmpf, we brothers have been together for years, don't think such a paltry trick will work on me!"
Longzi just facepalmed before pointing behind him. The boss upon seeing Longzi's action couldn't help but have his faith shaken. Taking a chance, the boss turned around, and his mouth hung open in shock as he saw his trusted second brother fleeing into the distance. He never had a chance to vent his betrayal because Longzi's saber pierced through his dantian, destroying his Spiritual Core instantly. Hey, Longzi never said his earlier actions weren't a paltry trick to lower his guard.
After dealing with the strongest cultivator there, Longzi chased after the last survivor and decapitated him. He had been mildly surprised that the second brother was actually an Acupoint Opening Master. The vagrant actually managed to survived without his head, but so what? He was still too weak and Longzi easily killed him by slicing him in half. He made sure to entirely destroy their bodies in case they had some secret revival method.
For his first debut, it was quite a sad ending, Longzi thought. He wasn't even forced to show half of his abilities and his opponents abandoned each other mid-fight at the slightest sign of danger. He was even backstabbed. Taking this lesson in, Longzi raised his guard even more.