Chapter 701: Entering Reincarnation Stirs All Directions

Chapter 701: Chapter 701: Entering Reincarnation Stirs All Directions

Xu Yunfan shot a glance at his clone, Wukong, not far away.

Wukong’s True Spirit had now completely merged with the newly refined Stone Embryo Dharma Body.

He clenched his fist, and his Stone Embryo Tendons and Bones produced a grating, metallic sound. What surged through his meridians was no longer Buddha Power, but Magical Power at the Peak of Foundation Establishment, simulated by the Eight Sceneries Cloud Qi.

He stared at the Profound Mirror, then suddenly grinned, baring his fangs.

"You want me to disguise myself as you and enter the Netherworld? Xu Yunfan, are you just afraid the Bitter Sea Qiu Long will rip out your Golden Core, so you’re using me as a scapegoat?"

Xu Yunfan tapped the Profound Mirror with a fingertip, and its surface rippled.

"The Nether Gate only permits passage to those with ignorant True Spirits. If it senses the aura of a Golden Core, even a True Monarch would be forced to flee in disgrace from the backlash of the Sea of Suffering."

He tossed the Profound Mirror to Wukong.

"Carry this mirror, and you can simulate the phenomenon of a True Spirit Returning to the Ruins. The world will only perceive Xu Yunfan’s Divine Soul stepping into Reincarnation to seek a Fruit Position; they won’t know it’s you."

Everyone on the outside was watching him. Although he didn’t know who exactly was watching, openly or in secret, the hook was ready to be cast. Now, all he had to do was wait quietly to find out who held ill intentions.

No one would be able to sit still. Once he obtained the Taiyin Nether Dragon Fruit and stepped into the Mid-Stage Golden Core, the balance of power would surely be broken.

The Puchen Pure Land, the Wansheng Sword Sect, and even the True Monarchs hiding in the shadows would be unable to resist making a move.

For Wukong, this mission was almost certain death.

Wukong knew this perfectly well, but he caught the Profound Mirror without the slightest hesitation. The moment he did, the Soul Nourishing Wood Heart on the back of the mirror oozed a gentle vitality that enveloped his entire body.

For a mere clone to regain its freedom was not so easy.

The instant he took hold of the Profound Mirror, his Golden Eyes contracted sharply.

This Magical Treasure was actually drawing on his remaining Indestructible Golden Nature to maintain its illusion.

He understood in a flash. Xu Yunfan was using him to clear the minefield.

"A brilliant scheme," Wukong snarled, the words squeezed from between his teeth.

"You borrow my Golden Nature to fool the Nether Gate. If I die in the Sea of Suffering, this little bit of my Origin will become your resource for Artifact Refining.

If I’m lucky enough to return, you’ll just be fulfilling your promise to reconstruct my Dao Body. You can’t lose either way! You’re treacherous to the bone."

Xu Yunfan stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes showing no ripple of emotion.

"You chose this path."

Wukong heard this and wanted to curse him out loud. ’If you hadn’t forced me, would I have chosen this path?!’

Before Wukong could speak, Xu Yunfan suddenly pointed toward Wukong’s brow with two fingers held together like a sword.

The Li Fire Cloud Qi burned brightly while the Kun Earth Cloud Qi pressed down heavily. Wukong’s facial features and bones melted like wax, reshaping themselves.

The sharp-beaked, monkey-cheeked look faded away. His cheekbones rose, his jawline grew cold and hard, and his face finally settled into the appearance of Xu Yunfan’s original body. Only the depths of his Molten Gold Pupils retained a savage, simian violence.

"You’re not even going to change the color of my eyes?"

Wukong taunted, wearing Xu Yunfan’s face. "Are you deliberately leaving a flaw for someone to spot?"

"If the records are correct, the Sea of Suffering Reincarnation is without light. Distinguishing colors is meaningless."

Xu Yunfan raised his hand and pressed down on the air. The Divine Sky Mountain’s Grand Array rumbled open, creating a fissure through which the outside aura flooded in.

"It’s time to leave. Remember, the moment you enter the Nether Gate, activate the Profound Mirror’s full power. You don’t have much time."

Wukong rubbed the cold mask of a face, so utterly at odds with his own temperament, and suddenly lowered his voice.

"What if I find the Dao Fruit in the depths of the Sea of Suffering, and you go back on your word...?"

"Then let’s make a wager."

Xu Yunfan cut him off, the corner of his mouth lifting into a faint arc. "Wager on whether I would destroy my sharpest future blade for a single Taiyin Dao Fruit."

Wukong’s Golden Eyes narrowed.

He understood the unspoken meaning.

’Xu Yunfan doesn’t just want the Dao Fruit; he wants to use the Sea of Suffering to sharpen me, his blade!’

’I can have freedom and be unrestrained, but only on the condition that I become the blade in Xu Yunfan’s hand.’

After a long silence, having weighed the pros and cons in his mind, Wukong spat on the ground.

"You really are a treacherous bastard."

Hearing this, Xu Yunfan relaxed inwardly and a slight smile touched his lips.

He had genuinely been afraid that Wukong, in a fit of spite, would choose mutual destruction. If that had happened, he would have been forced to use his other clone, Han Shi, who in his eyes was merely a second-rate substitute.

Xu Yunfan said seriously, "Don’t worry. You are my clone. I can see everything you see, and at critical moments, I can even act through your body."

Wukong was a little surprised. He truly hadn’t expected that Xu Yunfan, having created a clone, would possess such a technique.

"You haven’t cultivated the ’One Qi Transforms into the Three Pristine Ones’ technique, have you? Am I your ’Evil Body’?"

Acting across an endless distance, from another realm entirely—it was simply unthinkable. From the perspective of any other Golden Core True Monarch, it would be utterly incomprehensible.

Xu Yunfan smiled faintly. "If I had truly severed my Evil Body, do you think I would still be a mere Golden Core?"

Wukong said no more and slapped the Profound Mirror against his chest.

The Soul-Stabilizing Bead on the back of the mirror flared with a ghostly light. A vast surge of Death Qi covered his entire body. In an instant, the stone embryo clone, which walked the world with Xu Yunfan’s face, transformed into a gray shadow and hurled itself toward Reincarnation.

A spectral wind whipped at Wukong’s robes.

He looked down at the gray mist churning at the base of the cliff. Within the mist, countless dazed True Spirits drifted aimlessly, converging toward a colossal fissure deep within the fog that stretched from earth to sky.

The Reincarnation Nether Gate.

Visible only to the True Spirits of the world.

Between the edges of the gate, turbulent currents of spacetime darted about like electric serpents, continuously devouring any True Spirit that drew near.

"Xu Yunfan! You’d better keep your word..."

Wukong gritted his teeth and pressed the Profound Mirror into his Spirit Platform.

The Reincarnation Dao Patterns on the mirror’s surface lit up. The vitality of the Soul Nourishing Wood Heart was completely withdrawn, and his Indestructible Golden Nature transformed into a dark gold membrane of light, enveloping his True Spirit.

In the next instant, he leaped into the gray mist.

The void above the cliff shimmered, and Xu Yunfan, having concealed his form with the Triple Cause and Effect Secret Technique, silently appeared.

Gazing at the gray shadow that had vanished into the Nether Gate, he raised a Jade Talisman in his palm.

Branded onto the talisman was the fluctuation of Wukong’s Divine Soul from right before he leaped. It was startlingly identical in origin to Xu Yunfan’s own.

"The bait has been cast."

Xu Yunfan crushed the Jade Talisman and looked up toward the horizon.

The path of cultivation required countless schemes for every step forward. It wasn’t just about training, but more so about dealing with all manner of calamities.

In this world of immortal cultivation, after reaching the Golden Core realm, every advancement was announced to the heavens and the earth, making it impossible to hide.

No one wants someone else positioned above them, ready to shit on their head.

Several powerful Divine Thoughts from the Nine Great Immortal Mountains of the Primordial Sect swept across Reincarnation Cliff. All of them captured the aura of Xu Yunfan’s Divine Soul leaving its shell and forcing its way into the Sea of Suffering Reincarnation.

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Wansheng Sword Sect, Phecda Peak.

The peak of the cold, solitary Sword Peak was perennially shrouded in a profound, chilling qi that felt as if it could freeze the very Divine Soul.

The Phecda Star Pivot Sword Soul Profound True Monarch sat cross-legged upon a sword platform carved from Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice. A Formless Sword Spirit coalesced and flowed around his body, emitting a faint but heart-pounding hum.

His tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open. From the depths of his pupils, two points of Sword Aura, like cold stars, shot out. They pierced through the chilling mist coiling around the peak and stabbed toward the distant location of the Primordial Sect’s Divine Sky Mountain.

Just a moment ago, an extremely subtle yet abnormally tenacious fluctuation of a Divine Soul had torn through the boundary between life and death, forcing its way into the Sea of Suffering Reincarnation, that land belonging to the dead.

This fluctuation carried an aura that True Monarch Tong Xuan could never forget, one that was carved into his very bones.

The Destruction Dao Rhyme of the Divine Sky Thunderbolt!

"XU! YUN! FAN!"

True Monarch Tong Xuan squeezed the name out from between his teeth, each syllable dripping with boundless hatred and icy killing intent.

This man had destroyed his Grotto Heaven and ruined his Daoist Cultivation. Not even all the water in the world could wash away his hatred.

In the battle at the Boundary Sea, he, a dignified Sword Spirit True Monarch of the Wansheng Sword Sect, had been injured by a junior who had just entered the Golden Core realm, who had teamed up with True Monarch Dong Ming. Not only did he lose all face, but he also had to sacrifice a precious Sword Dao Spiritual Treasure to perform a Golden Cicada Shell escape, fleeing in a pathetic state.