I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

At that very moment, the walls trapping Su Ze and Mr. Ya rapidly dissolved into vines and pulled away.

The vine wall, of course, retracted under Su Ze’s control. He had deliberately trapped himself and Mr. Ya to create the illusion that they had been stuck there the entire time.

To keep Jasim and the others from growing suspicious, he had deliberately staggered the times the three walls opened so the three groups wouldn’t all appear at the intersection simultaneously.

”Su Ze, you’re still on the ship?” Gu Chengguang and his two companions asked in surprise when they saw Su Ze and Mr. Ya.

Su Ze gave a bitter smile. ”We planned to leave right after we parted ways with you. But just as we reached the exit, the ship’s main door shut on its own. We tried to turn back to find you, but then this wall suddenly appeared and blocked our path.”

”What? The ship’s main door is closed?!”

The group hurried to the ship’s exit, only to find it just as Su Ze had said—the main door was sealed tight. Even with their combined strength, they couldn’t open it.

”We’re trapped in here?”

”There must be a way out!”

The Overlords racked their brains for a solution. Suddenly, Jasim turned to Su Ze and asked, ”Su Ze, how did you know how to open the ship’s main door in the first place?”

’This old fox suspects me. He’s trying to find a hole in my story...’ Su Ze remained perfectly calm and answered without a moment’s hesitation, ”The president of the Oasis Commerce Association told me.”

”The Oasis Commerce Association? How would they know how to open the ship?” Jasim asked, his brow furrowed.

”She said the information came from the Oasis Mother Tree. It wanted me to find something for it after I got inside. In return, the Oasis Commerce Association promised me a generous reward and said I could take my pick of any treasures on the ship.”

As he spoke, a look of regret crossed Su Ze’s face, making him look for all the world like he’d been swindled. ”Who knew this piece-of-junk ship would be completely empty? And to top it all off, now we can’t even get out.”

”What did the Oasis Commerce Association ask you to find?” another Overlord from the Great Desert Kingdom asked.

”I don’t know. She just told me to get on the ship, and that the Mother Tree would tell me what to do once I was inside.” Su Ze shrugged. ”But it still hasn’t told me what I’m looking for.”

”The Mother Tree can contact you inside the ship?” Jasim asked, his eyes narrowing. They had discovered long ago that all communication devices were useless once they boarded, completely cutting them off from the outside world.

”I have no idea. When I was trapped just now, I yelled for a long time, but it never responded.”

Su Ze was pinning all the blame on the Oasis Mother Tree. ’Go ahead, take it up with the tree if you’re so tough.’

Su Ze wasn’t sure if Jasim and the others believed him, but they had probably only bought part of his story.

Just then, Jasim, Gu Chengguang, and the others suddenly shuddered. A mental message had entered their minds—it was from the Mother Tree!

If the Mother Tree could contact Su Ze, it could naturally communicate with everyone else, too.

Su Ze and Mr. Ya followed suit, giving a little ”shudder” of their own, as if they too had received the Mother Tree’s message.

Afterward, they all exchanged glances, confirming that everyone had received the same message.

”The Oasis Mother Tree wants us to help recharge the ship?”

”That’s right. It says the exit will only open after the ship is charged with sufficient energy.”

”It’s threatening us!” Heto said angrily.

”What can you do about it?” Jasim shot him a look.

Gu Chengguang said gravely, ”In hundreds of years, the Oasis Mother Tree has never shown any hostility toward humans. We should trust it for now and give it a try.”

Jasim nodded. ”We don’t have any other options. We either give it a try or wait here for the people from the Sovereign Country to come rescue us.”

Li Fayi shook his head. ”My fear is that even the people from the Sovereign Country won’t be able to get this thing open. It’s alien technology, after all!”

”Then that’s all the more reason we have to save ourselves!”

The sudden mental message from the Mother Tree, combined with the countless Spiritual Plants inside the ship, finally convinced the Overlords from the Great Desert Kingdom of the connection between the ship and the tree.

The five Overlords looked at the hidden door that had suddenly appeared in the wall and, following the Mother Tree’s guidance, entered the Energy Room.

As for Su Ze and Mr. Ya, they simply stayed behind, not crowding into the Energy Room.

However, everything that happened in the Energy Room was still under Su Ze’s surveillance.

The five Overlords curiously sized up the Energy Room. Heto sent a discreet mental message, ”Everyone, what if we forcibly destroy this Five-Colored Soil? If we wreck the ship’s power core and it loses all energy, wouldn’t the main door swing open?”

Li Fayi shrugged and scoffed, ”We’ve been in here for ages and can’t even snap a single one of its vines. You think you can destroy its power core?”

Heto’s face flushed with anger, but he didn’t say another word.

Next, the Overlords began to act as manual labor, recharging the ship’s power.

A moment later, all five Overlords were completely drained. Listless and exhausted, they sat on the ground to rest.

Su Ze, however, checked the ship’s charging progress. It was only at 2%. The five of them, completely wrung dry, had only managed to add 1%.

’These five old geezers are pretty useless,’ he thought. ’Guess their age is catching up to them. No stamina at all.’

’By that metric, I could probably supply as much energy as at least three of those Overlords combined.’

’No big deal, though. I’ll just let them rest and recover. One more round from them should be about enough.’

But just then, a column of light thicker than an elephant’s leg suddenly shot down from the skylight above the Energy Room. It was blindingly brilliant!

’Is... someone recharging the ship from the outside?’

’Who’s this good Samaritan?’

The massive beam of light lasted for several full minutes before stopping. And in that short time, the ship’s energy reserves had already reached 3%!

Su Ze’s spirits soared. ’The ship can take off now!’

...

Outside the ship, Kan Zhiyong, the Saint-level Supreme from the Sovereign Country, was panting heavily.

Having tried every method he could think of to open the ship to no avail, he had gone to ask the Great Desert Kingdom Overlord how Gu Chengguang and the others had managed to open it earlier.