Chapter 339

Its preciousness lay in the four words "obey one's commands." This was the difference between the common goods that anyone could exchange for and a unique cultivation technique.

A mirror image is a projection of one's own combat consciousness and only possesses combat instincts;

But a clone is different. He He Lingchuan could speak through it, see through it, and split his focus to control it to do other things. Besides climbing walls and tearing off tiles, it could also thread needles and embroider. If he didn't mind the short duration, it could even perform some vigorous exercise.

Expanded upon, the actions of this clone were full of infinite possibilities; it all depended on how he used it.

This was a true "incarnation outside the body."

Of course, Wang Laohan also saw the potential of this divine ability, which was why he kept stuffing money into the beast's mouth, trying to fill it up.

Unfortunately, this matter was far beyond his capabilities.

So, was it possible for He He Lingchuan to satisfy the Gold-Swallowing Beast's appetite?

Wang Laohan's highest record was feeding it seven hundred taels of silver plus two large oriental pearls, and it hadn't worked.

He He Lingchuan took stock of his family fortune and found that it wasn't even one-third of that amount; he was truly far off.

However, although this thing was called a Gold-Swallowing Beast, was it enough for it to just eat gold, silver, and treasures?

Wang Laohan had tried his best, and what was the result he finally sought: the treasures of the human world simply could not satisfy it.

Even for a Gold-Swallowing Beast, it had high requirements for the quality of its food.

And supreme treasures never win by quantity.

He He Lingchuan laid out all his belongings on the table and examined them one by one.

The candy snail shell was only liked by humans; this thing would definitely not eat it.

In the dream, he didn't even have a single piece of mysterious crystal, otherwise, he could have given it a try.

Then there were various weapons and a little gold and silver... calculating it this way, he hadn't saved much family fortune in the dream at all! The only thing that could be called a supreme treasure was probably just the Floating Life Blade.

As soon as he touched the hilt, the precious blade vibrated angrily twice, as if to say: You dare?

He didn't dare. Besides, if he threw the Floating Life Blade out, he didn't know who would end up eating whom.

However, this Cloning Technique was extremely useful and might be a great help in dealing with the current reality.

He He Lingchuan looked around, and his gaze suddenly fell on two inconspicuous little things: two silkworm cocoons.

Strictly speaking, these were the brain cores of two Jindu cubs.

One could create a flesh-and-blood fortress for an hour or two, and the other was broken, with its function temporarily unknown.

The Jindu mother was a deity, so shouldn't its cubs at least carry the title of "divine child"? Then these two brain cores shouldn't be ordinary objects, or to use Wang Laohan's words, "not treasures of the human world"? He remembered General Hong's words that these two things still retained a bit of divine power.

Then, let's try? He He Lingchuan picked up the broken Jindu brain core; anyway, it had no other use.

He first prepared paper and pen, ground the ink, and then tossed the brain core into the wide-open beast-mouth pattern on the scroll.

Sure enough, the brain core vanished instantly, as if it had fallen into a bottomless pit.

Two breaths passed.

Five breaths passed.

There was no change at all, not even as much as when he tossed in a copper coin.

Was it indigestible? He He Lingchuan couldn't help but sigh, finally experiencing Wang Laohan's feeling of seeking but not obtaining.

This god-damned Gold-Swallowing Beast, this damn scammer.

Failing once was enough; he didn't want to waste the other brain core. Throwing more to lose more, and throwing more to try to win it back, was the gambler's personality.

But just as He He Lingchuan intended to put away the scroll, the animal skin paper suddenly emitted a red light.

Immediately afterward, the beast-head pattern, which had been open-mouthed for years, actually closed its mouth!

The tattered animal skin paper suddenly recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye; the wormholes, damage, and stains disappeared, the missing parts were quickly filled in, and the originally dim Immortal language returned to clear and distinct vermilion characters! In just ten breaths, the animal skin paper in front of He He Lingchuan was as clean and complete as if it had just been written! Clearly, the Gold-Swallowing Beast was very satisfied with his feeding and was completely full.

Produced by a deity, it was truly no ordinary item.

So, was this eternal greed triumphing over eternal time? He He Lingchuan sighed with emotion and wrote furiously.

He had to transcribe the secret technique on it before the Gold-Swallowing Beast skin completely digested the brain core.

Fortunately, this time the Gold-Swallowing Beast skin seemed to be exceptionally full, maintaining its complete state for as long as half an hour.

This time was enough for He He Lingchuan to finish copying and check it back and forth several times.

Half an hour later, the Gold-Swallowing Beast skin slowly returned to its original state.

It was another tattered piece of skin paper.

He He Lingchuan picked up the divine ability technique he had copied and read it carefully several times, letting out a long sigh of relief, his heart filled with wild joy.

Besides the fact that the clone could obey commands, the technique also mentioned a key point: it could wear equipment.

Think about it carefully; it seemed to have infinite possibilities.

He immediately left the quiet room and, using his status as the shop's landlord, asked the fat shopkeeper for a super-low discount price to prepare an outfit for the clone, including a set of demon python skin light armor, fast boots, a set of throwing knives, and two fine iron twin blades!

Yes, the moves He He Lingchuan knew, the clone also knew.

He was particularly looking forward to the scene of the clone and himself wielding blades together to hack at the enemy.

Although it was a "broken-bone" discount, anything that touched upon magic tools was dead expensive; he had spent nearly half his net worth with just a wave of his hand.

Sigh, money and military merit don't last; they disappear as soon as you loosen your hand.

Just like that, the cunning shopkeeper still felt he had been taken advantage of and took out a few bottles of elixirs and a set of talismans to try hard to sell to him. He He Lingchuan thought that there were no medicine apes in the dream city to make medicine for him, and A-Luo was busy as hell, so he accepted a few for emergency use.

The shopkeeper managed to win back a round.

Next, he could finally go to the Pengcheng Bureau.

With the Cloning Technique, the military merit he had originally planned to use for the Mirror Image Technique could be saved. He He Lingchuan pondered for a long time and exchanged for another divine ability called "Stubbornness."

This small divine ability didn't cost much military merit but was very useful. Its special effect was to make the user enter a state of "stubborn stone," where all acupoints were sealed, breath was cut off, the heartbeat stopped, and even spiritual sense could be shielded.

As long as it was supplemented by superficial camouflage, when others scanned with their spiritual sense, they would mostly think this was ordinary wood or stone rather than a human.

Of course, the more profound the cultivation, the longer the duration of "Stubbornness."

Afterward, He He Lingchuan hurried back to his residence.

For the next thirty or forty hours, he shut his ears to the world outside the window and focused solely on studying the two new skills he had acquired.

In reality, he was in a dangerous situation; having one more point of strength meant one more point of security and one more point of hope for survival.

Finally, He He Lingchuan summarized his results: as a beginner, the "Stubbornness" he used could last for nearly two quarters of an hour; as for the Cloning Technique, he could temporarily only summon one clone, whose physique, strength, and speed were no different from the main body, with a duration of about twelve breaths, and it would disappear early if it suffered a fatal wound.

This clone could leave the main body by at most twelve zhang, could wear equipment, and could act according to his will—if He He Lingchuan himself was too busy to handle it, it would automatically attack the enemy.

It seemed... quite intelligent?

It was just that it could only be summoned once every hour.

And judging by He He Lingchuan's current cultivation base, each summoning would drain more than half of his true power. So, when to use this move really required careful calculation.

Furthermore, the clone would continuously consume true power during its duration, which also had to be deducted from the main body.

In other words, if He He Lingchuan summoned a clone, first his true power would be reduced by half, and then he would have to bear the true power consumed by both himself and the clone in battle.

That was at least a double drain.

He He Lingchuan counted on his fingers for a long time; he had gained a major skill, but his true power was now stretched thin.

It seemed he would have to work hard to improve his cultivation base and increase the quality and quantity of his true power later on.

￥￥￥￥￥

A purple swamphen was foraging in the ruins of the Jiana tribe when suddenly the grass behind it rustled, scaring it into fleeing back into the reeds.

He He Lingchuan had just obtained two ten-jin large fish from the cave spider's net cage and was about to go back to roast them for dinner when he couldn't help but stop his steps as he passed the Jiana tribe's Moon God Temple.

Two consecutive dreams were related to the Jindu cubs and the plans of the deities, and most importantly, they were also related to the current reality.

General Hong hinted that Wen Daolun had abandoned the request to use the Great Fang Hu, personally cutting off the only hope for his son to survive.

He He Lingchuan could see at a glance that his true feelings for his son far surpassed those of his own "cheap" father.

Yet Wen Daolun still did so.

Then it wouldn't hurt to reverse-engineer it: if Zhong Zhong Shengquan had agreed to Wen Daolun's request and used the Great Fang Hu to save Wen Xing's life, what would have happened?

The most direct consequence would be that Wen Xing could survive.

Even if struck by divine magic, he could still recover.

He remembered General Hong saying, "Only divine magic can deal with divine magic right now," or using a divine artifact.

This should be a consensus among the Heavenly Gods; Lady Mitian knew it, so the deity who launched the sneak attack on Wen Daolun should also be aware of it.

But the two words "divine artifact" were interrupted by Zhong Zhong Shengquan, who didn't want outsiders to know.

Combined with the background that it was the 15th year of Panlongcheng, which was the third year after Zhong Zhong Shengquan offered sacrifices to the gods, a thought arose in He He Lingchuan's mind:

Is there a possibility that the existence of the Great Fang Hu was still a secret at that time?

He entered the dream as a latecomer and naturally knew that Panlongcheng possessed the Great Fang Hu. However, were the civilians, the nation, and even the deities of that time perhaps kept in the dark?

Even people like Hu Min and Liu Tiao didn't know about the existence of the Three-Corpse Worms, and enemy nations like Bali and Xianyou hadn't yet developed effective ways to deal with the Three-Corpse Worms' control of the gods.

Perhaps only a few people like Zhong Zhong Shengquan and Wen Daolun controlled the secret of the Great Fang Hu.

Then, once Wen Xing was cured, the Jindu mother would immediately know the fact that Panlongcheng possessed a divine artifact.

Would this turn into a new root of disaster?

He He Lingchuan walked into the Moon God Temple and looked up at the tall statue.

How did Zhu Yao Erniang introduce the Jiana tribe earlier? That strong people emerged here in large numbers, and not only had divine miracles occurred here, but it also guarded the treasures bestowed by the gods? Afterward, the Jindu mother sent the gluttonous monsters.

Now He He Lingchuan already knew that for deities who could not descend to the human world in person, gluttonous monsters were a precious strategic resource, and there was no way to recover them after they were deployed.

Why would such an expensive, one-time-use killing weapon be thrown at a tiny, insignificant tribe? Even if it had produced quite a few strong people.

That meant their goal was very large—

The gluttonous monsters came for the treasure bestowed by the "Moon God."

If the deities also confirmed that Panlongcheng had a treasure, how would they deal with it?

This chapter is a bonus update for the new Golden Alliance member, Fenghuo Yanyu; my blood tank is empty, I'm going to eat.

(End of chapter)