I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 175: Chapter 161: The Hard-to-Swallow Sand Blind Snake Extract

[Atago: My dearest friend, how should I get this extract to you?]

[Atago: I would be very happy to have you as a guest in the Great Desert Kingdom. I could give you the Sand Blind Snake Extract in person. But if you’re too busy to get away, I can also entrust it to someone reliable to deliver it to you.]

[Su Ze: Thank you so much, my dearest friend. I can’t wait to meet you, but I’m tied up with some things recently and can’t get away... Also, I can’t let the efforts of your kingdom’s brave warriors be in vain. I must pay for their hard work.]

Su Ze didn’t actually mind a trip to the Great Desert Kingdom. He quite enjoyed exploring new places and experiencing different cultures.

However, the Pope of the Evolution Divine Teachings had recently made a move against him, putting him on high alert. He decided it was best to lay low and focus on developing his strength at Dongli University for a while.

Besides, the Great Desert Kingdom was unlike other nations. It was truly vast and sparsely populated, a land of sprawling, uninhabited deserts. Traveling through the desert was no safer than trekking through the wilds.

In the end, Su Ze decided against going to the Great Desert Kingdom himself and opted to have Prince Atago arrange for the Sand Blind Snake Extract to be delivered.

Then there was the matter of payment for the extract... A typical Tier 3 S-rank extract cost around three billion. Su Ze knew that Prince Atago had specifically commissioned the Royal Hunting Team to acquire this Sand Blind Snake Extract for him.

If this had been a ”custom order” through a company like Evolutionary Technology, the price would have essentially doubled to around six billion.

Therefore, Su Ze was prepared to pay for the Royal Hunting Team’s services, which was only fair. He trusted that the price Atago quoted would be much lower than what Evolutionary Technology would charge.

But to Su Ze’s surprise, Prince Atago only asked for the base price of the extract itself, without requesting any additional payment for the service.

’Now that’s what you call class. It’s a surefire way to build strong connections...’ Su Ze still made a show of politely refusing, but Prince Atago insisted on not accepting any extra money.

[Atago: You’re my best friend. I originally intended to give you this extract as a gift, but I’m only a Prince, not the King. My power is limited, and I’m already ashamed of that fact. I could never take more money from you.]

[Su Ze: In that case, I won’t insist. May our friendship be as eternal as the sun in the sky.]

Su Ze knew he now owed Atago a considerable favor. He also couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a hidden meaning in the prince’s last sentence.

’Is he hinting that he wants my help in his fight for the throne?’

The competition for the throne in the Great Desert Kingdom was known to be fierce.

Su Ze transferred 300,000 of his Evolutionary Technology points to Atago to purchase the Sand Blind Snake Extract.

Atago said he would entrust the delivery to a merchant from the Great Desert doing business in Dongli, and that it should arrive in about two or three days.

...

A full week had passed since Su Ze finished digesting the Mutated Electric Eel Extract. Today, he finally received word that the Sand Blind Snake Extract was about to be delivered.

Early in the morning, the reliable merchant Atago had mentioned contacted Su Ze, saying he would deliver the extract around noon.

For the past week, Su Ze’s body had entered a rare Gap Period.

It seemed that ever since he escaped from Mu Country, his body had barely had a moment’s rest, constantly busy digesting extracts.

After finishing one extract, he would start the next one within two or three days at most. Most of the time, the transition was seamless.

As a result, he never even had a chance to take supplements like the Strengthening Elixir.

These supplements were for evolvers to strengthen their physical constitution after digesting an extract, building a better foundation for absorbing the next one. But even without such supplements, Su Ze’s body was already strong enough to absorb S+ rank extracts.

In fact, for the fourth extract of each evolution stage, he would always absorb one from a higher tier.

But now that the third Cocoon Stage extract was almost in his hands, Su Ze had to consider a question: should he still jump a tier for his fourth extract?

’If I jump a tier again, that would be a Tier 4 extract—a Saint-level extract!’

’As a Cocoon Stage evolver, can I really handle a Saint-level extract?’

This was on a completely different level from his previous tier jumps. There was a qualitative difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4 extracts!

Su Ze couldn’t make up his mind. He decided to wait until after he had absorbed the third extract and then ask for Liou Wenxin’s opinion.

At noon, a large, burly man with a cloth wrapped around his head arrived at Dongli University, found Su Ze, and handed him a tube of extract.

Su Ze accepted the extract, which was shining with a yellow evolutionary glow. He thanked the man profusely and enthusiastically invited the merchant from the Great Desert to join him for lunch.

Over lunch, through casual conversation, Su Ze learned the man’s name was Prolo and that he specialized in trading Evolution Items.

Prolo himself was a Butterfly Stage expert backed by a major firm, the Oasis Commerce Association. Their association had its own hunting teams that operated mainly around the Miracle Oasis.

The Miracle Oasis was a desert oasis located at the junction of the Luofan Country, the Dongli Kingdom, and the Great Desert Kingdom. It was home to many unique mutated beasts and a source of various evolutionary herbs. Believing that more friends meant more opportunities, Su Ze and Prolo exchanged contact information.

After seeing Prolo off, Su Ze immediately went to Liou Wenxin’s laboratory to have the extract analyzed.

’Better to be safe.’ He had to make sure there was nothing wrong with the extract before absorbing it.

The analysis results came back quickly; the extract was fine.

[Sand Blind Snake Extract]

Rank: Tier 3 S-rank

Acquirable Skills: Eye of Truth, sandstorm tornado...

Instead of returning to his villa, Su Ze found a room in Liou Wenxin’s laboratory and went inside to absorb the extract.

He had already wasted a whole week waiting for this extract. Impatient, he immediately poured it into his mouth.

A few seconds later, Su Ze burst out of the room, snatched the cup from Liou Wenxin’s desk, and threw his head back, gulping down all the water left inside.

’Son of a bitch, why didn’t anyone warn me this Sand Blind Snake Extract was so ”hard to swallow”!’

It was literally impossible to get down. The moment the Sand Blind Snake Extract entered his mouth, it felt as if it had turned from a liquid into a solid, lodging in his esophagus. He couldn’t spit it out or swallow it.

And it was bitter, astringent, and reeked of fish!

The extract was sliding down his esophagus at a speed of 0.5 millimeters per second, as if determined to make him savor its less-than-wonderful taste.

Even after he drank half a cup of water, the extract’s journey to his stomach only sped up slightly. It was still an agonizing process.

’So much for finding one of those legendary sweet-tasting extracts!’

With no other option, Su Ze began to hop up and down on the spot. He even used his Gravity Dust Sand skill to increase the gravity acting on him, all to make the Sand Blind Snake Extract ”get to his stomach” faster.

”What are you...?” Liou Wenxin asked, looking at Su Ze with a strange expression. Apparently, she was also unaware of this particular characteristic of the Sand Blind Snake Extract.

Su Ze waved a hand, unable to speak with his throat still blocked.

A few minutes later, Su Ze finally sighed in relief as the extract successfully descended into his stomach.

He immediately returned to the room.

The rest of the absorption process went smoothly. For Su Ze, absorbing a Tier 3 S-rank extract was no challenge at all.

Once the absorption was complete, Su Ze once again entered a white void for the skill selection phase.

After carefully sensing the wisps of mist that represented the different skills, Su Ze chose Eye of Truth without hesitation.

Eye of Truth: Converts Evolutionary Force into countless ”Perception Tentacles” that are invisible to the naked eye and are released from the user’s eyes. Grants omnidirectional awareness within the area covered by the Perception Tentacles. The range is adjustable; the smaller the range, the stronger the perception.

These so-called Perception Tentacles could be understood as countless microscopic feelers formed from Evolutionary Force. Through the tactile feedback they generated, the user could perceive the world in its truest state, which was why the skill was named Eye of Truth.

Upon successfully acquiring the Eye of Truth skill, Su Ze immediately felt a wave of heat wash over him as his ”Knowledge is Power” skill activated, strengthening his body.

A moment later, the enhancement ended. Su Ze straightened his clothes and then activated the Eye of Truth skill.

A stream of Evolutionary Force flowed into his eyes, then radiated outward. By then, it had already changed form into innumerable Perception Tentacles, which filled the entire room.

To an outside observer, the room looked completely unchanged, but in reality, every corner was now filled with invisible ”Perception Tentacles.”

In Su Ze’s mind, it was as if a holographic, three-dimensional image of the room had been constructed, bringing everything in all directions within his perception.

He could clearly perceive every detail: the dust on the floor, the lint floating in the air, the minuscule, uneven particles on the painted walls that were invisible to the naked eye, a single pin-sized droplet of water splashed on the desk...

’This is so much better than just using my eyes!’

Su Ze marveled at the skill’s incredible power, then began to constrict his range of perception.

As the range of perception shrank, the density of the ”Perception Tentacles” within it grew, and his perception of the area became increasingly detailed.

It was like looking through a magnifying glass.

When Su Ze focused the perception range into two ”beams of sight,” he suddenly felt as if his eyes had become microscopes, capable of seeing down to the cellular level.

However, this wasn’t something he ”saw” in the traditional sense; rather, his ”gaze” was ”touching” it, and the image was generated directly in his mind. The picture his actual eyes saw was the same as always.

At that moment, Su Ze was truly projecting a gaze that felt tangible.

’In this state, if I add a little electricity to my ’gaze,’ won’t I have my own Laser Eye?’

Su Ze was eager to try it out, but this was Liou Wenxin’s lab, and he couldn’t just go around causing random destruction.

As he walked out of the room, he met Liou Wenxin’s concerned gaze. Su Ze nodded. ”The absorption was a success. I’m going to the school’s training hall to try it out.”

”Go on,” Liou Wenxin said with a wave of her hand. ”Remember to tell me the results.”

She, too, was very curious about what kind of effect could be produced by combining the Eye of Truth skill with the Thunder God Body.

’If the effect is good, couldn’t this be promoted?’

Thunder God Body, as a skill from the Mutated Electric Eel, was difficult to find a second time, but it could be completely substituted with the Frenzied Electric Body from the Deep-Sea Electric Eel.

Failing that, there were plenty of other lower-level Electric Skills. Mutated beasts evolved from electric rays or Electric Catfish also possessed similar abilities.

The Eye of Truth skill, however, was special. It would be difficult to find a direct substitute for it among other Pupil Techniques.