Chapter 177: A Free Gift!
After obtaining the [Primal Demonic Qi], Jiang Zhe had his demon clone also try out two other innate secret arts: [Void Walker] and [Chrono Usurper].
Thanks to these two secret arts, the demon clone's comprehension of the laws of time and space was incredibly sharp—only slightly inferior to the Candlelight clone, whose specialty was precisely the laws of time and space.
Jiang Zhe's own strongest perception was in the laws of lightning, followed by time.
If his enhanced perception of the laws of time—thanks to the Duke's Heart—was taken as the baseline unit of "1,"
then the demon clone's perception of the laws of time would measure at "10,"
and for space, around "7."
Simply put, with this additional clone, Jiang Zhe's overall speed in comprehending the laws had taken another significant leap.
As for the practical effects of these innate secret arts, neither was especially remarkable.
Jiang Zhe chose them mainly to dissect their law inscriptions, hoping to gain inspiration and achieve acknowledgment from the origins of time and space sooner—perhaps even to quickly master a grand profundity.
In Jiang Zhe's view, chasing flashy abilities was less worthwhile than steadily deepening his understanding of the laws.
The demon clone activated the [Void Walker] secret art, and mysterious law patterns appeared across its body.
In that instant, the spatial threads within a billion-kilometer radius were laid bare to Jiang Zhe's senses.
He felt that with a mere thought, he could appear at any point within that vast range.
"I remember that the typical perception range for instant movement isn't nearly this wide..."
Murmuring to himself, Jiang Zhe had the demon clone narrow its sprawling senses, focusing them in a single direction.
This time, it discovered it could perceive spatial threads hundreds of billions of kilometers away.
With a thought—
Whoosh!
The towering figure, over 900 kilometers tall, squeezed into space and vanished, leaving behind intense spatial ripples.
Before these ripples could even settle, an even stronger spatial disturbance erupted—
Whoosh!
The colossal figure forcibly tore its way back out of space.
In just a blink, the demon clone had traversed a round trip spanning hundreds of billions of kilometers.
This—was instantaneous travel!
Jiang Zhe carefully savored the sensations the demon clone shared back with him.
Experiencing teleportation firsthand had given him a far more precise grasp of the laws of space.
Beside him, the Seraph reminded softly,
"The power of these innate secret arts isn't fixed forever. As your strength grows, the range of your teleportation will expand, the spatial ripples will lessen, and you'll eventually be able to pierce spatial seals and suppressions. But that's also the upper limit of [Void Walker]."
Jiang Zhe came back to himself, nodded, and looked to the demon clone.
"Try out [Chrono Usurper] next."
Time was Jiang Zhe's main focus of cultivation.
After experimenting with accelerating and slowing time, he gained even more than from grasping teleportation.
It made him eager to go into seclusion and delve seriously into the laws of time.
Of course, before that, he still needed to break through to Domain Lord and return to Earth.
The demon clone shrank its massive form, ultimately settling at a height of three meters. Its hands shaped into claws, reaching inward to pull out a blade and a book.
With Jiang Zhe's own handsome face, crowned by a pair of blood-red horns, jet-black crystalline hair, clothed in a blood robe, holding a knife in his right hand and a book in his left, it exuded a unique, sinister allure.
Clone and original body locked eyes—a novel feeling rising up in both.
Boom!
BOOM BOOM—
Suddenly, terrifying spatial tides surged in the void under the umbrella.
Looking off into the distance, they saw a gargantuan "star" slowly lumbering toward them.
As its radiant glow swept over, the raging spatial tides froze, and the once-turbulent fabric of space-time turned as solid as iron.
How could a gathering of the clones and original body be complete without the most imposing of them all—the Candlelight clone?
The Seraph was left utterly stunned.
It wasn't that she'd never seen creatures this large—
but among flesh-and-blood lifeforms beneath True Gods, she'd never seen anything remotely close.
Her master was a master of life creation, yet even then, beings of such colossal scale existed only in the records.
This was why, having witnessed the Candlelight clone, she had strongly advised Jiang Zhe to pursue the godforce path.
Otherwise, if he advanced by the laws alone, once he attempted to become a True God, his light-years-long divine body would collapse, all that vast godforce returning to the original universe.
A crystal sphere with 10,081 facets, representing the clone's 1x life gene level, dropped from the Candlelight clone.
Even so, it still spanned over 4 million kilometers in diameter!
To put it in perspective: Earth's sun would be like a tiny marble beside it.
Tens of thousands of tetrahedral particles that made up this sphere disassembled and recombined, compressing themselves to the limit, finally forming a 10-meter-tall humanoid shape—
its entire body glistening like jadeite ice, radiating a soft glow from inside out. Draped in a white robe, it emanated a boundless, serene aura like a living Buddha.
The original body, Candlelight avatar, and demon clone floated in a triangular formation—
their first truly formal meeting.
They regarded each other, intrigued and a bit amused.
As for the silver-armored soul clone?
That was just an outsider.
This was a brothers' gathering—no need to mention that snake.
Far away, the silver-armored soul clone was deep in cultivation under the watchful eye of a Devour Titan.
Sensing the situation with the main body, it was so annoyed it almost wanted to sever the "network cable" connecting its comprehension speed to the domain master level—
refusing to let them share in the accelerated insights.
Jiang Zhe looked over the 10-meter Candlelight avatar, growing more satisfied the longer he observed.
Everyone knew: the larger the form, the more cumbersome to move.
Just look at the Lord of Nine Nethers, whose diameter was 12 light-years after merging with the sea—nearly immobile.
Even his own Candlelight clone, already 900 million kilometers wide at peak Universe level, was in the same boat.
So, following the Nine Nethers Lord's example of using smaller incarnations to roam the cosmos, and inspired by the [Enlightener] secret art's "mortal vessel" concept, Jiang Zhe also crafted such an avatar—
perfect for daily activity.
Even though this "avatar" currently only had a 1x life gene level, its sheer size promised tremendous godforce reserves once it broke through to Immortal. Jiang Zhe estimated it could even burn its divine body without loss to unleash the mighty [Kingdom in Hand].
"Have the Candlelight avatar stay separate. Keep that humanoid form—perfect for practicing ultimate techniques."
The Eighth Abyss
Jiang Zhe waited for the Virtual Universe Company to send an Immortal steward to pick him up.
Chi Ying looked at him, reluctant to part.
"Teacher, will you come back to visit me?"
Jiang Zhe shook his head.
"I won't deliberately return. I hope that the next time I see you in the real world, it'll be to take you away from the Abyss."
Chi Ying bit her lip.
"Then when will you come to take me away?"
"Hmm… Chi Ying, let's make a promise."
"When you reach the peak of Marquis, can slay 100 demon Dukes and one Marquess with a 100x life gene level, I'll come to the Abyss to fetch you—and show you the sights of the original universe."
"Really?" Her eyes sparkled. "Teacher, it's a promise!"
"It's a promise."
Clap!
Two hands—one large, one small—met in a solemn pact.
Jiang Zhe couldn't help but remind her again:
"Chi Ying, use the treasures I left you wisely. Send me updates regularly—don't let this be our last farewell."
"Pfft! I have 17 drops of origin blood and that top-grade treasure set you left me. The Abyss is like a 'starter village' in a virtual game for me. Other than the Ninth Abyss, I can roam wherever I want."
"You… spend less time on those virtual games. The anonymous account I gave you wasn't for entertainment."
Jiang Zhe scolded lightly, ruffling her head, hoping to press all these lessons deep into her mind.
Raising a disciple felt a lot like raising a daughter.
His heart rippled. After nearly 200 years of hard cultivation, the taut string finally relaxed a bit, stirring a desire to form more ties to this world.
Elders, wives, children, disciples, the lineage from Earth, the human race…
The deeper the attachments, the stronger the drive to rise.
In his previous life, he could never understand those lonely cultivators, isolated and tirelessly training.
When they reached the heights of power, did their lack of ties to the world make them grow weary of existence—leading to self-destruction and catastrophe for countless innocents?
This was no mere scare story. In the myriad worlds, there was precedent—
like a certain disillusioned "Master of the Bronze Coffin," who brought about the calamities of the "遮天 trilogy."
Just thinking about the suffering inflicted on all life was chilling.
Jiang Zhe decided it was better to embrace ordinary human nature—never becoming too aloof.
"Teacher, I'll remember. I'll cut back on gaming. Now stop messing up my hair—it's all tangled!"
Chi Ying huffed, slapping his hand away.
Then she grumbled,
"Hmph! As for you—once back in the original universe, you'll only be a minor Domain Lord. Be careful… In the future, it has to be you who comes to take me. I won't recognize anyone else."
"Haha, don't worry—it will definitely be me." Jiang Zhe ruffled her hair again, smoothing it out after messing it up.
Then he waved his hand, scattering 35 drops of origin blood he'd collected.
He watched as they tore through space, returning to their respective blood pools.
With a flip of his right hand, a thick tome about a handspan wide appeared in his palm.
It was the Codex of Life.
One by one, 28 fist-sized blobs of origin blood emerged from its blood-red cover, breaking through space to replenish the Abyss's deficient pools.
Fourteen hours later, a purple-robed Immortal steward arrived at the agreed location.
Using God Kingdom teleportation, he extracted Jiang Zhe from the Abyss.
Jiang Zhe had been wary of an assassination at this step—
but seeing that the steward was clearly of the Dark Lord's own race, his vigilance eased.
He couldn't help but sigh. His teacher was thorough—
for three training worlds in a row, he'd sent direct clansmen to escort Jiang Zhe, forbidding outsiders from intervening, even dropping small tips along the way.
Thus, Jiang Zhe returned to the original universe without incident.
The purple-robed steward took him straight to the outer edge of Wuchen Space-Time, then let Jiang Zhe pilot his own craft back to his manor.
Bermington led the guard and servants in lining up and kneeling to greet him.
Jiang Zhe exchanged a few pleasantries and words of encouragement before dismissing them, hurrying back to his stilted bamboo lodge.
On the way, he received a message from the Dark Lord, summoning him to meet in the Virtual Universe.
Virtual Universe, Dark God Nation Plane
Inside the Dark God Temple, master and disciple sat across from each other at a wine table.
Though Jiang Zhe was still weak in raw power, his will was exceptionally strong—top-tier even among Venerables. Coupled with the Dark Lord's kindly attitude toward him, their interactions lacked the stiff formality of, say, Luo Feng's early meetings with Chaos City Lord.
"You brat—why'd you leave the Abyss world so soon? Not satisfied with using pureblood demons as your clone base?"
"Teacher, my clone's already successfully incubated. I also completed the task you set. Naturally, I came back."
The Dark Lord's eyes widened, growing urgent.
"That fast? What multiplier is your clone? What foolish thing did you do?!"
Jiang Zhe leaned back from the table to avoid being deafened by the shout.
"Teacher, I know you're anxious, but please—hold on."
"Quit clowning around and tell me!" The Dark Lord glared fiercely.
So Jiang Zhe tucked his neck and told the truth.
"I got 8 drops of origin blood, so of course I incubated a clone with a 10,000x life gene level."
"Wait—! I know demon race has that potential, but you directly incubated a '10,000x' clone?"
Jiang Zhe blinked, then nodded.
"Can that clone secret art be passed on to offspring like the Golden Horned Beast's innate secret art?"
"Teacher, my [Clone] isn't an innate secret art. Even if it was—do you think the original universe's source will allow a technique like this, given its effects, to be inherited?"
"Hah… true. I let joy cloud my reason." The Dark Lord rubbed his bald head, a faint smile on his lips.
"Incredible. Truly incredible. I've never heard of a clone secret art like yours."
"From what I see, it's no exaggeration to call yours the number one [Clone] secret art in the original universe."
His smile slowly faded, replaced by solemnity.
"Every sip and bite has its destined place."
"The universe is fair. It has its own balancing mechanisms—sometimes brutally crushing extraordinary outliers. Your road ahead will be hard."
Jiang Zhe grew serious, nodding deeply.
"I understand, Teacher. I'm not afraid."
The Dark Lord secretly shook his head… wanting to say,
You don't really understand yet.
In his plan, Jiang Zhe should never have gotten his hands on so much origin blood—should have come to him for help. Then he'd have given just a drop, letting Jiang Zhe incubate a mere 1,260x clone, gradually evolving it after reaching Immortal to avoid problems with an overly rigid domain core.
Now… that door had closed.
"Jiang Zhe, this new race of yours is extraordinary. How long do you estimate your lifespan will be as a Domain Lord?"
"My lifespan will be 1,810 times that of a standard Domain Lord, so 1.81 million eras."
The Dark Lord raised his brows, relieved.
"That's good. Time is on your side. From here on, focus on creating your own ultimate techniques—that's your only lifeline."
"Yes, Teacher."
"Alright, anything else? If not, you may go."
"Teacher, there is one more thing." Jiang Zhe hurriedly said,
"My cultivation at Universe level hasn't yet reached its true peak. I'd like to apply for 'billions' of C-grade lightning treasures. Not using free quotas—I have plenty of wealth: mixed yuan units, points, treasure credits, deduct as you please."
The Dark Lord was shrewd. He caught the real meaning at once.
"Some lightning treasures?"
Jiang Zhe's eyes were firm.
"Billions of lightning treasures."
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