Patriarch Vast Expanse's Clone

Patriarch Vast Expanse's Clone is the guardian left by the Transcendent founder known as the Ghost inside his necropolis. It is distinct from the golden skeletal hand kept by the Vast Expanse School as a guardian treasure. The clone awakens from the founder's statue to hold back Allheaven while Meng Hao completes the Ninth Hex and reaches Transcendence.

Biography

Guardian of the ninth land mass

The Vast Expanse School possesses several remnants of its founder. A golden skeletal hand appears earlier as a school guardian treasure and is identified as the Immortal hand Patriarch Vast Expanse left behind after becoming the Ghost. That hand protects Planet Vast Expanse from Allheaven, but it is not the clone that later awakens in the necropolis. (Chapter 1527)

The actual clone is concealed as the huge statue seated upon the throne of the ninth land mass. When Allheaven's embodiment approaches Meng Hao, the statue sheds its stone form and steps between them. Its body is not flesh and blood, and it explains its purpose through action before words: black mist packed with vicious ghosts engulfs the attacker, while an aura that seems both Immortal and Ghost marks it as a remnant of the founder's divided path. (Chapter 1533)

Allheaven addresses it as an eldest son and questions why it remains after the original has departed. The clone refuses to surrender Meng Hao, declaring that Allheaven will not take him. It dissolves the statue into exactly one hundred drops of black liquid, which enter Meng Hao and help open his sealed senses while he forms the Ninth Hex. The clone then uses a spectral, multicolored arm and its personal Dao to counter a symbol built from the weakened magical laws of the entire starry sky. (Chapter 1533)

Holding the line for Transcendence

The clone repeatedly blocks Allheaven's four-headed, eight-armed embodiment while Meng Hao cycles through the Demon Sealing Hexes. It can draw upon or converge the Divine Sense of the cultivators who once lived throughout its lands, turning collective will into barriers. Allheaven explodes its body and slows its reformation, yet the remaining defenses still prevent the embodiment from reaching Meng Hao. (Chapters 1534–1535)

Once Meng Hao begins to establish his own Daosource, the clone recognizes that direct protection is no longer necessary. It smiles and allows him to face the final descending finger himself. After Meng Hao succeeds, he bows in sincere gratitude. The clone explains that the three earlier Transcendors have departed into the greater Universe and calls witnessing a fourth Transcendence in its old home a blessing. (Chapters 1536–1537)

The clone does not leave with Meng Hao. It says that its remaining existence is limited to at most another ten thousand years, returns to the throne, and lets stone cover it until it is once again the enormous statue watching its homeland. Its latest state is dormant guardianship, not destruction. (Chapter 1537)

Appearance and personality

In dormancy, the clone is a colossal stone statue of Patriarch Vast Expanse seated on a throne. Awakened, it has a non-flesh body and can turn an arm spectral and multicolored. Its power carries contradictory traces of Immortal and Ghost without being reducible to either.

It is silent, impassive, and absolutely purposeful when Meng Hao is endangered. It shows no fear before the embodiment of the entire Allheaven starry sky. Only after Meng Hao succeeds does it smile and speak reflectively, revealing acceptance of its own limited lifespan and gratitude that its long vigil allowed it to witness another Transcendor.

Abilities and cultivation

• Immortal-Ghost aura: The clone combines traces of Patriarch Vast Expanse's Immortal origin and Ghost transformation. Black mist filled with vicious ghosts is its first offensive expression, while its pure personal Dao can take multicolored spectral form.
• Resistance to Allheaven: It can clash directly with Allheaven's embodiment, stagger it, crush it with pressure, and repeatedly bar its route to Meng Hao. This does not make the clone stronger than Allheaven; it is eventually exploded and its reformation is delayed.
• One hundred black drops: The statue dissolves into exactly one hundred drops that enter Meng Hao's forehead and restore his sealed senses during formation of the Ninth Hex. The technique transfers prepared power or perception without replacing Meng Hao's own breakthrough.
• Collective Divine Sense defense: The clone converges the Divine Sense of the cultivators associated with its lands into attacks and barriers. Those barriers continue protecting Meng Hao even when the clone's body is temporarily dispersed.
• Reformation: Destruction of its manifested body is not immediately fatal; it can begin taking shape again. Allheaven can slow this process, establishing a clear limit against stronger suppression.
• Ancient-era domain: Its magic places Meng Hao within an ancient version of the necropolis while the battle continues, giving him the protected context needed to operate the Hexes.

Relationships

• Meng Hao: The successor it protects long enough to form the Ninth Hex and Transcend. Meng Hao's final bow acknowledges that the breakthrough would have failed without that intervention.
• Patriarch Vast Expanse / the Ghost: The original Transcendor who created and left the clone as necropolis guardian. The clone retains his Dao and memories but explicitly identifies itself as a separate, finite remnant.
• Allheaven: Opponent that calls the original Ghost its eldest son and tries to seize Meng Hao. Their clash defines the clone's final active duty.
• Vast Expanse School: Descendants of the founder's legacy, although the clone remains in the necropolis rather than governing the active school.

Items

• Founder statue and throne: The physical configuration in which the clone sleeps and to which it returns after Meng Hao's breakthrough.
• Golden skeletal hand: Not the clone's body. It is a separate guardian treasure made from the founder's abandoned Immortal hand and is kept by the Vast Expanse School.