You Have Paper Figure Clones, I Have Seven Billion Two Hundred Million Clones

Li Changshou watched the straight hook in the Spiritual Lake; no Spirit Fish had taken the bait, and some even cast disdainful glances his way.

Li Changshou pondered for a moment, then stirred his Mana slightly.

'Eh?'

The Spirit Fish that had been disdainful suddenly showed a flicker of terror in its eyes, swimming slowly up to the straight hook and opening its mouth to bite.

This commotion naturally startled Li Yang and Lan Ling'e by the lakeside.

The lazy Lan Ling'e shot upright and excitedly shouted at Li Yang, "Senior Brother, a fish has taken the hook!"

Li Yang's languid demeanor vanished in an instant, and he became wildly excited.

Without any visible movement, he appeared before the fishing rod.

"Ling'e, the net!"

Li Yang roared, then lifted the rod, hauling the entire Spirit Fish out of the water.

"Got it!"

Lan Ling'e scooped the Spirit Fish up with the net, feeling its weight, and exclaimed, "Four Jin, a full Four Jin Twelve Liang! Senior Brother, I want Apricot Spirit Charcoal Grilled Fish!"

"Alright!"

Li Yang didn't dawdle; he took the fish and an axe and headed off with Lan Ling'e to cut down a tree.

Under the water, Li Changshou's eye twitched. What nonsense about Apricot Spirit Charcoal Grilled Fish?

Wasn't that Apricot Spirit Wood his, Li Changshou's? He'd planted no small number of trees on Lesser Qiong Peak, all stockpiled for his Paper Figures and Talismans.

Those two little rascals had wasted so much of his Spirit Wood over the past ten years; just thinking about it stung.

Still...

"Those two little ones have trained their Body Replacement Technique quite well. Li Yang's progress is especially terrifying—at this rate, that kid's cultivation must have reached the Returning Dao Realm by now!

As for Ling'e, her talent is a bit lacking, but she's at least at Return to Void."

Of Li Yang and Lan Ling'e, Li Changshou could only clearly see Lan Ling'e now, since her talent was somewhat inferior.

Li Yang, on the other hand, had talent that was simply too good. Whatever Li Changshou taught him, he could quickly absorb, digest, and then innovate.

His current cultivation level was something Li Changshou couldn't see through or guess; he could only estimate that he'd stepped into the Returning Dao Realm.

But which tier of Returning Dao, he couldn't tell either.

That kid Li Yang, standing on the shoulders of a giant like him, had surpassed his master. Now, Li Changshou couldn't even locate Li Yang's true body.

As for Lan Ling'e's true body, it was hidden within the Paper Figure she currently controlled.

The little girl was still a maiden at heart—joyful and lively, drinking milk tea, eating snacks. All those little details made her easy to predict.

Meanwhile, Li Yang shouldered the fishing rod and led Lan Ling'e to cut down a tree.

At the junction where the swaying straight hook met the fishing line, there was a hidden world—a vast space with mountains, water, pavilions, and even countless suits of armor and weapons.

At the center of this space stood a handsome, spirited young man.

His name was—Li Yang.

The chubby image he showed the outside world was just a facade.

He set down a 'Metal' pill in his hand and fell into thought.

"This Pot Heaven Minor Divine Ability is truly excellent—perfect for hiding and ambushing.

With all those formations and techniques to obscure fate, this place has become somewhere even an Immortal couldn't find.

At least, Senior Brother hasn't discovered me observing his Spirit Fish Paper Figure clone.

But I can't let my guard down. Senior Brother is, after all, the Grandmaster of the Cowardly Path. Who knows if he's actually noticed?

That Old Sixth is too shady."

Thinking this, Li Yang surveyed his 'Pot Heaven Small World,' which he'd spent five years building.

"I need better 'Metal' pill clones. I have to layer my concealment even deeper."

The countless suits of armor and weapons, varied in build and appearance, were all crafted by Li Yang for himself.

After all, Li Changshou had his Paper Figure Clones technique. Standing on Li Changshou's shoulders, Li Yang figured he ought to have an analogous technique, right?

The Spirit Wood on Lesser Qiong Peak had been planted by Li Changshou over a hundred years. He didn't even have enough for himself, let alone spare for Li Yang.

So Li Yang took a different path, turning his attention to alchemy.

The alchemy of this world was vast and varied—some used Metal and Stone, some used plants and herbs, some used the Qi of Heaven and Earth, and others used living beings or stars.

One could say alchemy encompassed everything and was a supreme Dao.

And the reason Li Yang had his eye on the Metal Stone Alchemy Technique was entirely because of his... trait.

[Work-Life Balance: (The longer the rest time, the better the cultivation effect.)]

This trait was far too misleading for him.

At first, he simply thought it was only related to cultivation.

But fortunately, the first time he used it, the worldly wisdom Li Changshou had taught him merged with the knowledge from his past life.

This accident led him to conduct an in-depth study of this term later on.

And the result of that study was that as long as he wasn't cultivating, doing anything else counted as rest.

At the same time, any book he saw only needed a cursory glance—even if he remembered nothing—as long as he used the term afterward, all that knowledge would automatically surface, organize itself, and undergo deep analysis.

Thus, if he wanted to learn cultivation knowledge, various spells, and so on, he only needed to glance at them carelessly.

But that wasn't all. When Li Changshou or his master gave lectures on the Dao, he discovered that even if he fell asleep, as long as he opened the panel at the right time, he could deeply comprehend the knowledge from those lectures, and even surpass them.

And after he sorted through this knowledge, when he opened it again later, these reorganized materials would be reabsorbed by him once more.

He could no longer describe this term; the label of "super comprehension" he had initially given it no longer seemed fitting.

But Li Yang knew that this term had forged his path to the Great Dao.

In the first two years, he absorbed a vast amount of knowledge and then locked onto the art of metal-stone alchemy.

Metal and stone weren't lying around everywhere, but they weren't scarce in the Great Desolation World either.

Compared to the paper figures Li Changshou used, which required cultivating spirit trees, these metals and stones were readily available to him at will.

At the same time, compared to paper figures, at the same level, metal was sturdier and sharper.

And most importantly, by combining alchemy techniques, Qi Refining Technique, Puppetry Technique, Cloning Technique, Incarnation Technique, Heavenly Secrets Concealment Technique, and so on, ordinary metal and stone could be turned into spiritual items of no low grade.

The final product, the "Golden Pill," could be thrown out to transform into a clone, its effectiveness and power no worse than Li Changshou's Paper Figure Clones.

Not only that, but because these possessed the properties of both "pill" and "artifact," as long as they were placed in a place rich in spiritual energy or abundant in Dao Rhyme, they could grow on their own.

Over time, even these clones refined from the simplest metal and stone would not be inferior to clones he had just forged from top-tier materials.

Looking at this stable space, filled with countless stars and the massive alchemy furnace occupying a third of the space—

The alchemy furnace flickered with flames, spewing out countless "Golden Pills," which then flew into the sky, turning into stars one by one.

Li Yang chuckled lightly: "Three hundred clones comparable to Origin Immortals, two hundred and forty thousand clones at Returning Dao Stages One through Nine, seven trillion two hundred billion clones at Qi Refining Stage Seven through Return to Ruin Stage Nine.

With these clones here, the Sect Trial Tournament a few days from now will be the day I ascend to immortality.

And this is merely the accumulation of eight years!!"