Meanwhile.
Countless miles from Gaoyang City lay a quiet spot of picturesque mountains and clear waters.
A stream murmured, and birdsong echoed in the distance.
Wisps of mist rose from the valley floor, shrouding the entire valley in a hazy veil.
At that moment, amid the surrounding mountains.
A purple-robed figure sat in a temporarily excavated cave abode.
His eyes were closed, and faint traces of blue source energy swirled around him.
It was the incarnation that had fled far away with the Sword Talisman.
Suddenly, Ye Li slowly opened his eyes.
An even more powerful surge of sky-blue source energy flowed with his movement, silently coursing through his limbs and body.
He looked down at his palm and carefully sensed his condition for a moment, then raised his brows slightly.
Early fourth level of the true source realm.
"...An unexpected bonus."
Ye Li murmured to himself.
When he had first created this incarnation, its main purpose had been to carry the Sword Talisman as bait. Its cultivation had only been at the threshold of the true source realm.
He had not expected that, after his breakthroughs at the Tree Court Inn, this incarnation's cultivation would rise along with his own, pulling it straight up to the early fourth level.
Ye Li made a few calculations inwardly.
Given the differences between them, this clone's ability to fight above its level was naturally nowhere near as absurd as his main body's.
A clone was still a clone, after all.
Whether in the precision of its cultivation methods or its mastery of divine abilities, it fell a full step short of his main body.
If his main body was a master wielding a heavy hammer, this incarnation was at best an inexperienced disciple holding the same hammer, far from capable of bringing