The black mist from his perspective effortlessly merged into the illusory, cross-legged avatar, becoming part of it. Within that figure, it drifted along the countless intersecting meridians and acupuncture points.
"Huh? The meridians are moving… and even the acupuncture points are shifting!"
"What's that light-blue stream of radiance? It looks just like spiritual energy! No… that's not a resemblance — it is spiritual energy!"
As the black mist seeped in, the entire cross-legged avatar seemed to come alive.
The once-empty acupuncture points and meridians now pulsed with flowing, light-blue energy identical to spiritual energy.
And more than that — Su Zhan noticed something crucial.
The way this energy flows… it's exactly the same as when I cultivate?!
His spirits instantly lifted.
Everyone's constitution was unique — flesh, blood, bones, meridians, acupuncture points, organs — each person's body was different.
Because of this, everyone's cultivation method also varied.
Yet the flow of energy inside the cross-legged avatar was exactly the same as his own cultivation pattern, without the slightest deviation.
"Wait…" A sudden thought struck him. "Could it be… the new function of this cross-legged clone is cultivation?"
The very idea startled him.
If that were true, then the black mist entering the avatar would be the same as him personally cultivating.
Cultivating in harmony
Those four words echoed in his mind.
"Go out and check!"
Unable to contain himself, Su Zhan's consciousness snapped back to his body.
His deity form, which had been sitting with eyes closed, suddenly opened them.
At once, a familiar sensation surged through him. His expression shifted — first a careful focus, then wide-eyed disbelief, then utter shock, until finally… his jaw dropped.
"F*ck!!"
"The Minor Power Cycle is running inside my body out of nowhere?!"
"That little guy… he's actually cultivating for me!"
The realization left him dumbfounded.
Cultivation, in simple terms, was guiding spiritual energy to circulate throughout the body. This energy came from the heavens and earth, not from oneself. It flowed through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, washing the flesh and blood, reshaping muscles and bones, before returning to the dantian's vortex of energy — thus becoming one's own cultivation.
This complete circulation was called Minor Power Cycle.
And where there was a Minor Power Cycle, there was also a Major Power Cycle.
Unlike the smaller cycle, which was confined to the flesh and bones, the Major Power Cycle washed over the internal organs, the five senses, and even the brain. Because these were critical and delicate, the process was slow — one Minor Power Cycle took an hour, but a Major Power Cycle required eight hours, uninterrupted.
If the cycle was broken midway, it had to start all over again — one reason why cultivation could be unbearably exhausting.
Absorbing vast amounts of spirit stones could speed up this process, boosting cultivation progress.
But right now, Su Zhan wasn't even in a cultivation state — neither Minor nor Major Power Cycle should be running.
Yet he could clearly feel his flesh, blood, muscles, and bones being invisibly refined.
He didn't know the source.
He couldn't trace it.
But it was real.
"Amazing… incredible… absolutely incredible!!"
"Ha ha ha ha…!"
Realizing beyond all doubt that the shadow clone could cultivate on his behalf, Su Zhan couldn't hold back his joy and burst into wild laughter.
"Hmm?"
Elsewhere, a man in blue — tasked with monitoring Su Zhan's every move — caught sight of this sudden outburst. His brow furrowed.
"Laughing like that… could he have stumbled upon a huge fortune?"
"But even if he did, it wouldn't be this exaggerated…"
At most, it could be a few dozen natural spirit stones.
Fine, he thought, let's be generous — maybe a natural high-purity stone, worth a thousand low-grade spirit stones. That's already incredible.
But judging from that laughter, it wasn't the joy of finding something worth a thousand low-grade spirit stone.
It was the joy of finding something worth… ten million low-grade spirit stone.
"Record it. I'm not getting involved in this mess—let the higher-ups deal with it." The man in the blue coat memorized the scene silently, then continued pretending to dig the soil while keeping a watchful eye.
Patter!
"The new function… it's the clone's cultivation!"
"Now I finally understand everything!"
Su Zhan's expression brightened, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "The so-called cross-legged shadow is the cultivation posture of my true body. Assign a clone into it, and it's equivalent to letting that clone cultivate exactly the way I do."
"I also finally understand why the black mist around the avatar gathers so closely—it's clearly waiting for me to choose where to send it!"
"Whichever clones I want to cultivate, I just place them into the cross-legged shadow… And this means I can arrange as many as I want. If I put all my clones in, they can all cultivate together!"
Thinking of this, Su Zhan didn't hesitate.
He entered his consciousness again, pushing a stream of black mist into the cross-legged shadow.
In an instant, the blue spiritual aura flooding the seven meridians and eight channels expanded like a tide, several times stronger than before!
"Go, go, go! All of you, get in there!"
Overcome with excitement, Su Zhan poured all the black mist into the shadow.
Before long, twenty-two streams of blue spiritual aura were flowing in unison through the meridians. The original light-blue glow deepened into a rich, dark blue.
"Twenty-two… That means my cultivation speed has increased twenty-two times!"
"And this is just the beginning. As the number of clones increases—when I reach a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand—the cultivation effect, the speed of improvement…"
Just imagining it made Su Zhan grin uncontrollably, his face lit with pure joy.
Even the Nine Realms? He could break through them in minutes!
And beyond that—higher realms: Origin Realm, Core Formation Realm, Profound Realm, Spirit Realm, and even the Heavenly Realm!
The mines? Sun Sect?
One day, they would be nothing more than his personal treasury and private garden!
At this moment, Su Zhan's confidence surged like never before.
But in the very next second—
When he exited his consciousness, eager to feel the 22-fold boost in efficiency, the smile on his face froze.
"Clones…?"
Yes.
The clones that had been busy mining just moments ago had all vanished—leaving behind only a few abandoned hoes in the dirt.