At the break of dawn, Cheng Qian bathed and dressed in clean clothes. He straightened his robe and tidied his hair to show his respect for the heavens and earth.
Creating a clone was like drawing a card from a deck. Was the result what truly mattered? No. What mattered was the process and the sense of ritual.
He believed deeply that as long as the ritual was done right, there was no card he couldn't draw.
If you didn't get what you wanted, it only meant your ritual wasn't sincere enough.
After washing up, he placed the talisman paper he had prepared neatly on the table. He lit a candle, cleansed his hands, then lit three sticks of incense.
"To the heavens above, shine down your silver light. Today, I, Cheng Qian, offer my sincere prayer, calling upon good fortune and blessings."
With his left hand, he held the incense near the candle. The flame lit the tips, and with his right hand he shielded them from the breeze.
Then he switched hands and carefully placed the incense into the censer: middle first, then left, then right.
Next, he stepped back a bit and performed three kneels and nine kowtows to show his devotion.
The ritual was now complete. The atmosphere felt perfect.
There is no harm in praying a little. After all, he had already transmigrated into this world. What else was impossible?
A seaside villa or just a rooftop shack: all depended on this one try.
"Come out!"
Cheng Qian activated his cheat. He could feel something being pulled from deep within him. It must have been his origin. In that moment, it felt like his soul had been hollowed out.
"Ah... I'm splitting apart."
In front of him, a glowing mist began to form, shimmering faintly with all the colors of the rainbow.
His heart leapt. He realized he wasn't limited to just female characters. He could even create other races, like spirit beasts.
That gave him so many more options.
But he didn't think too far ahead. First things first.
The thick mist began to shift and change with his thoughts. For a moment it became a certain actress, then another…
After playing around a bit, he noticed his origin was beginning to fade. Alarmed, he quickly began shaping the clone.
He crafted a girl around early teens. Her face still carried a trace of innocence, but in this world, that was old enough to be married.
"And I can choose her spiritual root too?"
Cheng Qian's eyes lit up. This was it.
Testing it a little, he realized the base template was the same as his own: a four-spirit root.
But he could adjust the values. When he lowered the fire root to zero, it disappeared, leaving three roots. Add it back? Four roots again.
He thought it through. If he wanted more resources, he needed value. What had value? Talented disciples. Geniuses admired by others.
Without hesitation, he maxed out the metal root. Low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade...
Earth-grade metal root. A prodigy of the sect, right there.
Exhausted, he collapsed to the floor. The clone was complete.
Strangely, he could see her clearly, and the two of them didn't affect each other at all.
Cheng Qian studied the figure before him. She wore nothing, but he had to admit, his sense of aesthetics was top-notch.
She looked like a lotus just beginning to bloom, pure and graceful. Her body was light and delicate, as if untouched by dust. A little fairy, truly beautiful.
Her long black hair shimmered faintly in the light, falling down to her waist. A few loose strands by her forehead made her look lively and playful.
Her eyes were clear and bright. Her nose was sharp, her lips soft pink. That small smile she wore was pure and warm, like spring sunlight melting away the last frost in one's heart.
Her skin was white and smooth. Just looking at her made him feel cool and calm.
From the perspective of the clone, looking down, he could only see the tips of her toes. Her figure was full in just the right places.
Cheng Qian nodded to himself. With this look, wouldn't she be able to charm half the sect?
When the time came, he'd have a thousand ways to make those disciples willingly hand over their spirit stones. A thousand ways!
No, no, this was going too far. If he kept staring, he might actually start enjoying it.
That wouldn't do. A person needed boundaries!
Pushing aside useless thoughts, Cheng Qian, still weak, slowly made his way to the street outside. He searched around and found a clothing shop, but all the clothes were too new, and too expensive.
So he ended up spending one spirit stone, a steep price, to buy an old set of clothes from a woman who did odd jobs. When she handed him the clothes, the look in her eyes was strange. She clearly couldn't understand the odd preferences of these local folks.
Cheng Qian didn't care at all. While he was at it, he also took some ash from the bottom of a pot.
Back at the rented place, his clone was pacing barefoot across the room, wrapped only in a blanket.
"How are you feeling? Getting used to it?" he asked.
"It's fine. Just feels weird talking to myself." Her voice was clear and crisp, pleasant to the ears.
"Hahaha, other people have split personalities. I literally split into two. Of course it's weird."
The clone threw the blanket onto the bed and started rolling around on the floor.
Meanwhile, Cheng Qian began mixing the pot ash with some loose dirt he found outside.
Her white skin gradually turned pitch black and dirty.
He circled around the clone, examining every inch.
"Still missing something. Hold on."
He ran to the outer room, grabbed the teapot, took a big gulp, and started spraying it out in all directions. "Pff—pff—pff." He spun in circles as he sprayed.
"Come on, roll around a few more times. Face, hair, gotta have some grime on those too.
"Oh, yes, your neck's still too clean. Rub on some more ash, spray a bit of water, then scrub it in.
"Outer thighs, elbows, add some scrapes.
"Ugh, even I feel pain just looking at it. Almost there. Sprinkle a little plant ash. It's gray and dirty, but it disinfects. Wouldn't want you dying from an infection before even making it to the Ascension Ceremony."
So what exactly was Cheng Qian doing?
He was creating a background story for his clone. No way an escaping refugee girl could show up looking squeaky clean. Sure, someone might say she just took a bath before the trip, but Cheng Qian wasn't going to use that excuse.
Because this was tied to the second part of his plan: the perfect introduction of a stunning prodigy.
He'd leave the rest for later. As for things like holes in her background, like the absent aunt or whatever—just say she died on the road. Simple enough.
Right now, the clone had become a dirty, bruised, ragged-looking girl.
Cheng Qian handed her the clothes he'd stomped on earlier. Once she put them on, she looked like a completely different person, totally unrecognizable from before.
"Now, give yourself a name," Cheng Qian said to her.
"Don't actually develop a split personality, okay?" The tone she replied with was nothing like a normal girl's.
"Alright, let's go with... Xu Luoshui. Better not mess up the surname and give anything away."
"Xu Luoshui... I like it."
After chatting with himself for a while and getting bored, he told Xu Luoshui to go rest on the floor in the outer room. Now, it was just a matter of waiting for the Ascension Ceremony. As long as nothing went wrong there, he'd be living by the sea in a villa in no time.
Earth-grade single spiritual root, and it was metal-based. Practically a sword immortal in the making.
With that kind of talent, that body, that face, he had no idea how those sect boys were supposed to resist.
Spirit stones? They'd hand them over with a smile. With enough of them, his real body could recover his origin and cultivate in peace.
The stronger his cultivation, the more valuable his clone would be. The more resources the clone brought in, the stronger he'd become. It was a closed-loop system. Flawless.
Imagine reaching Nascent Soul, Divine Transformation, or even higher realms of power.
The higher up the pyramid, the fewer the people. But with his clone just stuffing itself with spirit stones, it could rocket straight to the top. Eventually, he wouldn't need to use tricks anymore. He could just crush others with raw strength.
Besides, all the shady stuff was being done by the clone. What did that have to do with him, Cheng Qian?
Even immortality wasn't some vague, unreachable dream anymore.