I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 252: Chapter 217: Protecting Mr. Ya

Su Ze quietly accepted the enhancement from the ”Sunbathing,” and out of boredom, lit up another cigarette made from a Tier Four Tobacco Spiritual Plant.

The prodigies who had originally wanted to catch up to Su Ze had all given up by now. They had either retreated to the moonlight area or were lying defeated on the Golden Path.

It wasn’t that their willpower was weak; the terrifying spiritual pressure on the Golden Path was simply pinning them down, making it impossible to take even a single step.

Those once-unbeatable prodigies were now completely deflated, hanging their heads in dejection, having lost all motivation to chase Su Ze.

A few with better dispositions could only console themselves. ’It’s fine if I can’t match his Spiritual Power. There are still four trials to go. I just have to be the one laughing at the end!’

Those who already held a grudge against Su Ze watched him smoking in the distance, their eyes glinting with inscrutable thoughts.

Only Su Ze’s three teammates seemed genuinely happy for him.

More and more people finished receiving the moonlight’s blessing, and their Spiritual Power stopped increasing. They had no choice but to wonder what the next step of the trial was.

If the trial was over, they should have been sent back to the Dice Space. If it wasn’t, what else were they supposed to do?

Keep advancing toward the ”sun”? That was impossible!

They could never reach the end like Su Ze, not in a million years.

With no way back and no strength to move forward, everyone could only sit under the ”moon” and wait.

Mr. Ya also finished his Spiritual Power enhancement. He stood up and walked to the edge of the Golden Path, his thoughts unreadable.

After a moment, he yelled at the top of his lungs to Su Ze, ”Boss, is there still any spiritual pressure over there?”

Su Ze waved his hand. He was perfectly comfortable; there was no pressure at all.

After getting Su Ze’s answer, a shadow suddenly split off from Mr. Ya’s body.

It was the Tier Four, A-rank skill ”Shadow Clone,” which Mr. Ya had obtained from the Abyss Shadow Lord’s extract.

”What’s he doing?” The others cast curious glances toward Mr. Ya.

The Shadow Clone tentatively stepped onto the Golden Path and hopped around a bit.

After confirming the Shadow Clone was unaffected by the spiritual pressure, Mr. Ya controlled it to dash like the wind toward Su Ze’s position in the distance.

Su Ze instantly understood Mr. Ya’s plan... A Shadow Clone was essentially just a shadow, immune to spiritual pressure. Furthermore, Mr. Ya could swap places with his clone at any time.

So, Mr. Ya intended to have his Shadow Clone run to the finish line, then swap places with it—a clever trick to bypass the immense spiritual pressure of the Golden Path and get straight to the end.

’Would that even work?’

Su Ze was doubtful.

Although both of them were essentially cheating, Su Ze had at least walked the path step by step. Mr. Ya was trying to use a spatial ability to leap across the entire Golden Path.

Still, there was no harm in letting Mr. Ya try. What if it actually worked?

Mr. Ya’s Shadow Clone was incredibly fast. A black blur streaked past, and the clone was already beside Su Ze.

Then, Mr. Ya’s brow furrowed, suggesting he had run into a problem while trying to swap places with the clone.

The next second, Mr. Ya’s figure suddenly vanished.

”Where’d he go?”

The crowd looked around in confusion. When they looked toward the far end of the path again, they discovered that Mr. Ya was now standing next to Su Ze.

”How did he get over there?!”

”Damn it, he cheated!”

”He actually managed to sneak across!”

”What was that skill just now? A Shadow Clone?”

”Looked like it, but I’m not sure.”

Firoz’s gaze turned sinister. The more brilliantly Mr. Ya performed, the more determined Firoz became to eliminate him.

Amidst the heated discussions, only Su Ze guessed the truth. He asked in a low voice, ”You used that skill?”

Mr. Ya nodded. The Shadow Clone had just been a diversion. It would have been great if it had worked, but its failure was within his expectations.

So, upon discovering that the swap had failed, he had immediately used his ”Void” skill, turning into minuscule particles and instantly traveling to Su Ze’s side at top speed.

”Want one?” Su Ze offered the Tier Four cigarette in his hand to Mr. Ya.

Mr. Ya took one and asked quizzically, ”Boss, when did you start smoking? I don’t recall you ever smoking before.”

”This is a cigarette made from a Tier Four Tobacco Spiritual Plant. It enhances Spiritual Power.”

”Something this good exists?!” Mr. Ya immediately lit the cigarette and took a blissful drag, instantly feeling a euphoric rush. ”Wow, this stuff is potent!”

”Alright, just focus on enhancing your Spiritual Power. I’m already finished.”

Su Ze could feel that his Spiritual Power had stopped growing, which meant the reward from ”Sunbathing” had been fully distributed.

The moment the words left his mouth, Su Ze vanished from before Mr. Ya’s eyes.

Seeing Su Ze disappear, the others immediately understood that he had passed the second trial and returned to the Dice Space.

Mr. Ya composed himself and focused on Sunbathing. He remembered his agreement with Su Ze: to finish the second trial quickly and return to the Dice Space to absorb the Tier Four extract.

...

In a flash of light, Su Ze found himself back in the Dice Space.

Experiencing this for the second time, he still found it miraculous. He didn’t know if the Trial Space he had just been in was hidden within the dice or if the Trialists were simply being teleported to some distant, unknown location.

The first trial had rewarded him with energy to quickly digest extracts, and the second had directly rewarded him with a massive amount of Spiritual Power. This made Su Ze all the more eager to see what rewards the later trials would offer.

The reward for the second trial was far more bountiful and precious than the first, at least for those like Su Ze and Mr. Ya who had reached the finish line.

The drastic increase and qualitative transformation of his Spiritual Power were incredibly significant for Su Ze.

Although he wasn’t a psychic-type evolver, with his current level of Spiritual Power, even Saint-rank psychic masters like Zhou Wenshan and Amida couldn’t hope to harm him with mental attacks alone.

Another major benefit of his enhanced Spiritual Power was that he could now split into more parts when using ”Liquid Life,” allowing him to control more Liquid Clones simultaneously.

Previously, limited by his Spiritual Power, Su Ze could only control four Liquid Clones at once. Now, he estimated he could handle ten at a minimum!

He would have to test it to know for sure.

Furthermore, after his Spiritual Power reached the Saint-rank, Su Ze discovered that when he used ”Unyielding Will,” his spiritual power would merge with his physical body, granting him a higher degree of control. When he threw a punch, he could now control every single cell to exert force, allowing him to unleash his true strength more effectively than before.

Su Ze waited for a short while in the Dice Space, and just as he expected, Mr. Ya was the second person to return.

”Hurry up and absorb the extract,” Su Ze told him.

”Right.” Mr. Ya went to a corner of the Dice Space and took out a Tier Four fly-type beast extract.

This particular extract came from a fly-type beast that had evolved from a dung-eater, making it a ”skill blind box.” However, that fly-type beast had evolved quite well and was estimated to be a high-level Tier Four beast, so the extract was likely to contain high-level skills.

”Time to test my luck!” Mr. Ya said, full of anticipation, as he tilted his head back and drank the extract.

Although Mr. Ya possessed a special constitution that automatically let him absorb the highest-quality life-saving skill from any extract, it was still a matter of luck. What if this particular blind box didn’t contain any high-level life-saving skills at all?

It was like buying a lottery ticket; if there was no winning number in the first place, all the luck in the world wouldn’t help.

Absorbing a Tier Four extract still required some time. However, considering this was Mr. Ya’s second time—having already laid a foundation with a Tier Four, A-rank Abyss Shadow Lord extract—the process shouldn’t take too long.

It could be as fast as ten to twenty minutes, or as slow as over an hour.

The only question was when the second trial would officially end and how long it would be before the other Trialists returned.

It would be best if he could finish absorbing it before anyone else got back, to prevent any unforeseen complications.

Mr. Ya sat leaning against the corner, his brow tightly furrowed as he endured the surging power of the extract. Su Ze stood guard quietly in front of him, smoking boredly.

About twenty minutes later, Mr. Ya’s brow relaxed. Although he hadn’t finished the absorption process, he was past the most difficult stage.

All that was left was to wait for his body to completely absorb the extract and acquire the skill. During this process, an evolver was quite vulnerable. They couldn’t engage in intense combat and could only use low-cost skills.

A few moments later, the evolutionary power within Mr. Ya’s body began to fluctuate, uncontrollably flashing with a yellow light. He said, ”It should be soon. I’ll probably be done within ten minutes.”

The moment his words fell, lights flashed within the Dice Space. It was just like in the copies of *Journey to the West* Su Ze had watched as a child, when heavenly soldiers descended to the mortal realm. With a sudden WHOOSH, a large group of people appeared before them.

All forty-something surviving Trialists were back!

Li Yongguan and Zhang Tai immediately moved to rendezvous with Su Ze. Noticing Mr. Ya’s condition, they subtly positioned themselves alongside Su Ze, forming a protective barrier in front of him.

”How did you all get back?” Su Ze asked curiously.

”Time was up, so we were sent back,” Zhang Tai replied.

So that was it. To pass the second trial, one only had to reach the area under the ”moon.” However, they had to wait until the time limit for the stage expired before they would be teleported out.

It was just like what had happened with Mr. Ya during the first trial; he hadn’t passed by defeating an opponent like the other Trialists, but had simply survived until the time ran out. That also counted as passing, and he had received a reward as well.

In this second round, only Su Ze and Mr. Ya had achieved a ”perfect clear.” Everyone else had simply passed by surviving until the stage’s time limit.

Although they also received a Spiritual Power enhancement as a reward, it was nothing compared to what Su Ze and Mr. Ya had received. Only those who achieved a perfect clear could enjoy the ”Sunbathing.”

In the crowd, Firoz’s gaze swept across the room before finally landing on Mr. Ya in the corner.

He noticed Mr. Ya’s strange condition and seemed to realize something. He suddenly leaped into the air, his body shining with a brilliant light as he shot toward Mr. Ya in the corner like a meteor.

This was the Tier Four skill, ”Meteor Fall.” It allowed the user to turn their body into a meteor and crash into an enemy, possessing terrifying area-of-effect destructive power.

Firoz’s attack was incredibly decisive; many people hadn’t even processed what was happening.

However, Su Ze had already been wary of Firoz. He reacted in an instant, leaping up to collide with him.