I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 180: Chapter 164: The Old Man, the Cane, and the Oasis

Normally, evolvers below the Saint level cannot absorb extracts of a lower tier.

But Su Ze could clearly feel his body absorbing the vial of Tier Two, A-rank Mountain-moving Ant extract.

This was clearly the work of the Saint-level power within him, a force that likely originated from the Divine Grace of Evolution.

Subsequently, his Ant Power skill was upgraded as a natural result.

Su Ze took a moment to analyze the change. He discovered the upgrade didn’t overwrite his existing Ant Power with the enhanced version from the Mountain-moving Ant. Instead, it strengthened his skill from its original foundation.

To put it simply, Su Ze’s original Ant Power skill was Tier One, S-rank, while the Mountain-moving Ant’s was Tier Two, A-rank.

However, Su Ze didn’t just receive the Mountain-moving Ant’s Tier Two, A-rank Ant Power. Instead, his own skill was upgraded to Tier Two, S-rank.

Ant Power: Gain a tenfold power burst for one minute, and attacks gain a ”Shatter” effect. (Duration and power amplification depend on the user’s physical constitution).

Both the duration and the enhancement multiplier had increased significantly, but the key addition was the ”Shatter” effect.

Moreover, Su Ze could feel a slight improvement in his physical constitution.

The improvement wasn’t huge, but it proved this was a viable path.

Furthermore, absorbing lower-tier extracts this way didn’t require any time for digestion. This was true for the Tree Marrow and the Tier Four Coral Worm Tentacles he had absorbed previously as well. It proved that as long as he could find the right extracts and evolutionary materials, he could upgrade his skills rapidly and effectively.

Su Ze decisively paid for the Mountain-Piercing Rhinoceros extract in his shopping cart. However, it was already late, so the delivery would likely arrive tomorrow.

...

That evening, Su Ze brought Mr. Ya with him to the airport to pick up Ye Jin.

Su Ze didn’t give Mr. Ya a detailed introduction to Ye Jin, only mentioning that she was General Ning Yushen’s granddaughter.

”Senior Ye Jin!” Su Ze spotted her graceful figure in the crowd at a glance, waving as he called out.

”Junior.” Ye Jin’s eyes lit up, and she quickened her pace to walk over.

”This is Yargha. We all call him Mr. Ya,” Su Ze explained to Ye Jin.

Mr. Ya knew Ye Jin’s identity and was thus extremely courteous. Ye Jin, in turn, had always been impeccably polite. Their conversation was so formal and distant that Su Ze cringed in embarrassment.

Mr. Ya was awkward, too. Apparently, Ye Jin was the only one who didn’t feel awkward at all.

Su Ze cut in at the right moment. ”Senior Ye Jin, have you arranged a place to stay for tonight?”

Ye Jin replied, ”My grandmother said that Mr. Zhou arranged a private laboratory for me. She told me to live there from now on to make my research more convenient.”

’Mr. Zhou really went out of his way,’ Su Ze thought. ’Normally, only a renowned scientist like Liou Wenxin would be assigned a private lab by the university. But Zhou Wenshan clearly did this so Ye Jin wouldn’t disturb the other students. That’s why he didn’t give her a dorm room and just had her move directly into a luxury laboratory.’

The university’s labs were located in a remote, quiet part of campus to begin with. By living there, Ye Jin would be practically ”cut off from the world.”

”So, Senior, have you found a graduate advisor yet?” Su Ze asked.

”Not yet. I plan on looking in a couple of days,” Ye Jin replied.

To avoid pushing Ye Jin into a pit of fire, Su Ze refrained from recommending Liou Wenxin.

Su Ze and Mr. Ya walked Ye Jin all the way to her lab. They noticed it was even more remote than the other private laboratories, completely surrounded by vacant units.

Someone sent by Mr. Zhou delivered the lab key. After unlocking the door, Ye Jin invited Mr. Ya and Su Ze inside to sit for a while.

”No, thanks, Senior. I have things to do early tomorrow, so I should get back and sleep,” Su Ze politely declined.

”Alright, then. I’ll probably be busy for the next couple of days finding an advisor and filling out paperwork. Once I’m done with all that, remember to come find me at the lab, okay? I still want to discuss the future development of All Dao Return to One with you.”

”Definitely,” Su Ze readily agreed.

...

「The next day.」

Early in the morning, a courier from Evolutionary Technology delivered the Mountain-Piercing Rhinoceros extract.

Su Ze immediately consumed it, successfully upgrading his Rhino Charge skill.

Rhino Charge: Initiate a short-distance charge. Lifeforms in the charge path will be inflicted with a brief state of Dizziness upon impact. During the charge, speed increases dramatically, defense is significantly boosted, and you are difficult to hit.

The upgraded Rhino Charge was now a Tier Two, S-rank skill. It gained a Dizziness control effect, and its charge distance, bonus defense, and evasion were all enhanced.

Su Ze’s physical constitution improved by another small margin.

At this point, Su Ze had no Tier One skills left. This meant he could no longer upgrade them by absorbing extracts and would have to search for high-level evolutionary materials instead.

Su Ze began using all the connections at his disposal to search for suitable materials.

His current contacts were Xu Sheng of Evolutionary Technology, Prince Atago of the Great Desert Kingdom’s royal family, and the Dongli Kingdom government.

The problem was, Su Ze himself wasn’t sure which materials would be useful and which would be useless.

Therefore, his plan was to inspect the materials in person before deciding which ones to purchase.

He first contacted Xu Sheng, who readily agreed to his request. However, Xu Sheng explained that he could only let Su Ze inspect the materials from the dozen or so stores under his direct management.

Xu Sheng explained, ”Mr. Su, please understand. My authority is limited. You’re asking to see Saint-level materials, and I can’t just gather all the Tier Four materials from the entire corporation for you.”

Su Ze understood. Xu Sheng was currently just a regional manager for a single province in Dongli; his authority was limited.

So, he scheduled a time with Xu Sheng to visit in the near future.

Xu Sheng would gather all the Tier Four materials from the dozen or so stores under his management into a single location, allowing Su Ze to browse them all at once.

Next, Su Ze contacted Prince Atago.

Prince Atago said he would be delighted to host Su Ze in the Great Desert Kingdom and would provide whatever assistance was within his power.

He also gave Su Ze a tip: Prolo, the man he’d asked to deliver the Sand Blind Snake Extract, was backed by a powerful commerce association that should have the resources Su Ze needed. He suggested Su Ze try contacting him.

Su Ze had already added Prolo as a friend. From their previous conversations, he knew Prolo was part of the Oasis Commerce Association.

The Oasis Commerce Association was a well-known major trading guild. While it couldn’t compare to behemoths like the Evolution Technology Group or the Life Pharmaceutical Company, it was still a powerful faction with its own Saint-level experts.

The Oasis Commerce Association was founded by several wealthy merchants from the Dongli Kingdom, Luofan Country, and the Great Desert Kingdom. They spent lavishly to attract numerous evolvers and build their own powerful hunting teams.

Using Miracle Oasis as its base, the association held a near-monopoly on all resources produced there, allowing them to make a fortune.

However, they also helped the three kingdoms by fending off the threat of mutated beasts from Miracle Oasis, so all three nations recognized the association’s legal status.

’Miracle Oasis... it seems to produce quite a few high-level evolutionary resources. I should learn more about it before I contact this Prolo.’ Su Ze had a feeling he was about to get very busy.

Finally, there was the official Dongli channel. Su Ze considered ”browsing” the national treasury, but that was obviously against the rules.

He could probably get a few of Dongli’s top figures to bend the rules for him, but he couldn’t come up with a good enough reason.

’Should I confess my unique ability to them? Tell them I can upgrade skills even during my Cocoon Stage?’

Su Ze could be open with Liou Wenxin, Mrs. Yun, and Mr. Ya, but he didn’t trust anyone else to that degree.

He’d have to put that plan on the back burner and wait for the right opportunity or a plausible excuse.

...

For the next week, Su Ze never left the grounds of Dongli University.

He spent most of that week assimilating the power from the extracts he had taken.

In his spare time, he paid a visit to Ye Jin’s lab one evening for a long discussion about the future of All Dao Return to One. The rest of the time, he dedicated to a deep dive into researching Miracle Oasis.

By consulting with Liou Wenxin and doing his own research, he managed to get a general overview of Miracle Oasis.

Miracle Oasis had formed only about three hundred years ago. Legend had it that before then, the area was just a desolate, uninhabited desert—hot, arid, and completely barren.

There was a folktale, of questionable authenticity, about the origin of Miracle Oasis:

Long ago, a merchant caravan was passing through the region when they encountered an old man begging for water. This was just over a century after the end of the War of Evolution, so evolvers weren’t nearly as common as they are now. The caravan was mostly made up of ordinary people.

In the arid desert, water was an extremely precious commodity.

But the caravan leader was a kind man and gave the elder a flask of water.

The old man took the water but didn’t drink it. Instead, he plunged his walking staff into the yellow sand and poured the water over it.

In an instant, green shoots sprouted from the staff. It took root in the sand, radiating vibrant life.

The old man said it wasn’t enough and asked the caravan for more water.

The caravan leader, now realizing the old man was no ordinary person, didn’t dare refuse and gave him another flask of water.

After the second flask was poured, the staff sprouted branches and leaves, growing into a sapling half the height of a man.

The old man kept asking for water. Flask after flask was poured, and the staff grew into a tree with a trunk as thick as a bowl.

But the men in the caravan began to protest. If they gave away any more water, they wouldn’t have enough for themselves.

The caravan leader looked at the mysterious old man, gritted his teeth, and made a decision. He gave more than half of his party’s remaining water to the elder, leaving just enough for them to make the journey back out of the desert.

He had resigned himself to turning the caravan around and heading home.

But the old man just chuckled. He poured all the water onto the tree, and in an instant, it rocketed toward the sky, its canopy spreading to cast a massive shadow. Its roots shot out for a hundred miles in every direction, turning the yellow sand into fertile soil wherever they touched.

Water then began to fall from the treetop, gathering below into a small spring.

And thus, Miracle Oasis was born!