Staying in Penglai, Integrating the Clone

The Azure Flood Dragon stared as Li Yi suddenly split into two people. Though he knew this was some kind of supreme divine ability of his master, he still felt at a loss.

Especially when he looked at the Main Body—those cold, indifferent pupils, that icy face—it instantly reminded him of eternal frozen ice, sending chills down his spine that made him shudder involuntarily.

Li Yi sensed this newly acquired body. It wasn't yet a perfect fit, still somewhat awkward. It would likely take millions of years to achieve true unity of soul and flesh.

This was normal. Even an ordinary vessel required thousands of years to fully harmonize, let alone a supreme vessel like the former Twelve-Petal Azure Lotus.

As the saying goes, every gain comes with a loss. The higher the grade of the vessel, the more complex its structure, the greater the potential of its innate roots, and naturally the longer the period of breaking-in. After all, this body wasn't his own; understanding and merging with it from scratch took time.

In truth, if Li Yi only wanted to control the body, he wouldn't need millions of years. But during his seclusion, when he analyzed his strengths and weaknesses, he discovered that his Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm was not perfect. He knew many things by rote but not their underlying principles.

It was like how many people know exercise strengthens the body without understanding the mechanism, while professional athletes can train every single muscle.

Cultivation allowed no shortcuts. The more thoroughly one understood oneself, the firmer the foundation, the deeper the accumulated inner strength, and the greater the momentum for breaking through to higher realms.

Thus, Li Yi was willing to spend millions of years fully comprehending and refining the Azure Lotus rather than rushing his clone to advance further. After all, one eats bite by bite; haste might lead to choking. Last time, when he discovered the issue with the realm, it didn't matter much because his main body focused on physical cultivation, specializing in the laws of life, death, and other immortal principles, with no need to study other matters.

After sensing his own condition, Li Yi glanced at his Main Body. Though he knew that once the split soul left, the Main Body would become an iceberg, facing it still made him wryly smile. Li Yi had long known that when the split soul coexisted with the Main Body, even if the Main Body dominated, it still influenced the Main Body somewhat—it wouldn't be this cold.

Sure enough, once the split soul left, the Main Body's trait of absolute rationality fully manifested. Its cold, carved-stone face showed no emotional fluctuation. Since many emotional factors had departed with the split soul, this trait even grew strong enough to affect the body's appearance: pupils turned silver, hair turned snow-white.

After the split soul departed, the main body's cultivation base wavered slightly, but its deep foundation meant the impact was negligible—it remained at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm. The Green Lotus Clone, however, was only at the peak of Mystic Immortal. Once the clone achieved unity of spirit and flesh and comprehended its origin, it would attain the Golden Immortal rank. Compared to others who had to refine their acquired true spirit into an innate true spirit, Li Yi had it much easier.

In fact, this benefited Li Yi. If the incarnation became a Golden Immortal right away, he'd have to spend who knows how long patching the foundation, lacking tempering and insight. Foundations were hard to mend.

Though the Mystic Immortal realm was lower, it allowed Li Yi to build an even more solid foundation.

"Main Body, it seems you'll need to stand guard here for over a million years. Once I've finished tempering the Azure Lotus body, you can proceed with the plan."

The Main Body merely nodded coldly, tossed the Green Lotus Ancient Sword to Li Yi, and flew toward the main peak's summit without looking back.

"This... this... sigh," Li Yi was speechless. Facing the Main Body would infuriate even a stranger. "I wonder if the Main Body could ever get a girlfriend if he appeared in a later era." The thought of a beautiful girl chattering beside a face-slack, absent-minded statue struck him as bizarre.

Shaking his head to dismiss these pointless thoughts, Li Yi noticed the dazed Azure Flood Dragon beside him. It had been nearly three hundred years since Li Yi took the dragon as his mount. After giving him a cultivation manual, Li Yi had no time to attend to him—a bit shameful.

"Azure Flood Dragon, why haven't you transformed yet?" Li Yi asked curiously. The dragon was already at the peak of Heavenly Immortal; he could have transformed long ago.

"I think this is fine. Sturdy enough," the dragon said, deliberately swaying his long serpentine body, stirring the water elemental energy into turbulence.

"Alright, since you like it this way, so be it. You mainly cultivate your dragon body anyway, so this helps you comprehend the nature of water elements," Li Yi said helplessly, patting the dragon's head.

In truth, the Azure Flood Dragon had his own little scheme. According to his not-so-bright mind, Li Yi had taken him as a mount largely because of his unique dragon body. Otherwise, why hadn't he taken Golden Scale as a mount? Golden Scale's original form was also quite large.

Another worry: what if, after transforming, Li Yi took him as a servant? There were rumors in the mount world. A great cultivator once, after his mount transformed, felt the mount had served him long and hard, so he made the mount a servant to cultivate at the base while he got another mount. Later mounts were smarter—they stubbornly refused to transform, relying on their master's frequent guidance to quickly surpass the former, leaving the transformed mount regretting bitterly enough to spit blood.

Thus, though the Azure Flood Dragon was at the peak of Heavenly Immortal, he stubbornly refused to transform, determined to be the greatest mount ever.

Li Yi never imagined the dragon had such strange thoughts. He only thought that since he hadn't guided him in a while, he should give him some pointers.

And so, Li Yi remained on Penglai Island, tempering his body while comprehending the sword path knowledge carried by the Green Lotus Ancient Sword, occasionally guiding the Azure Flood Dragon.

Meanwhile, the Main Body quietly contemplated the nature of soul, divine sense, will, rules, and laws. After long deduction, he finally sorted out their relationships. Divine sense and will were both parts of the soul, but manifested in two different forms, like water's other two forms: vapor and ice.

Divine sense focused on scanning, perception, and inclusiveness, while will focused on obsession—domineering and single-minded. Some people radiated killing intent, others an eerie, chilling cold.

Rules were sub-bodies and tributaries of laws, like the relationship between a constitution and local regulations: the constitution as the general outline, local laws as the specifics.

These days were peaceful and fulfilling, but the Primordial Continent seethed with undercurrents, a storm brewing.